lining out

Went to Warley at the NEC today, had a very pleasant day hunting down Dublo bargains, trying to avoid the industrial kits at Mercian, chatting to Phil Parker, watching mad class 73s take off on their own and chatting to my colleagues from Guildford Model Engineers.

I have been lining the County project out.  For this I used Modelmasters lining transfers, nice and easy to use, you cut as much as you need, and fix it in situ, they do try to fight you but persistance and a bit of tenacity (and not a little language) pays off.  I did have a couple of cock ups, like when I puffed sharply to clear some dust and the line I just applied flew off the model to oblivion.  Learnt to stop doing that sharpish!

I'm sure anyone who knows will be able to see that the splasher lining is a cheat.  I couldn't easily replicate the double line in the space available and I didn't really want to line out the top, line out the bottom and then disturb what I'd already done.  I therefore have simplified it a bit (Dublo would have done this is my excuse, and I'm sure Dad won't mind) to one line at the top.

I've varnished the bits I've done to protect them from handling.  Once the models completely lined I'll varnish it, wash it and apply another coat to get the depth.

painting the neverwassa

I have been painting the County, and have been doing it rather differently to how I'd normally do it (i.e. spray paint).  Dublo locos, especially the earlier ones all had a hand painted finish to their paintwork.  I don't know if this was the case, I imagine they must have been sprayed but I may be wrong.  To replicate this I brush painted the body with Humbrol satin black paint.....which came out matt.  Hmmm how did that happen.

It doesn't matter, as I will be varnishing the model afterwards.  I'm currently lining out the loco, with Modelmaster lining decals.  I'm not keen on lining, I've done it in 7 1/4" gauge but never OO (all my locos have been goods black!).  So far its gone ok, not brilliant and certainly not Dublo standard but it looks ok to me. 

I have varnished the body with Ronseal satin floor varnish.  Left in an airing cupboard this will go very thin, and is easily brushed on.  This sounds rather cavalier but there is a reasoning to it, Dublo did market some models with a gloss finish for a time, and the County appears to be the same in appearance now to these gloss models. 

The nameplates have arrived from Modelmasters too.  They are excellent (never bought any from them before) and as soon as I've figured out how to fit them (you'll see!) they'll go on.

Pictures when its tidied up and the varnish is dry, in the meantime, here is a gloss N2 to show you what I mean, the livery is the same too.

A Dublo Neverwazza

My Father and I love our Dublo 3 rail, we've got stacks of it hidden away and lately I've begun buying more of it.  The idea is to build a layout later this year but that can wait for another blog post.

The thing with Dublo is, the range does rather constrain you as to what you can run.  Once you've bought all the common stuff you're stuck with either duplicates or a limited fleet of engines if you can't pay £400 for Ludlow Castle.  Lately it seems to have become the thing to re-number or repaint locos ala Wrenn fashion and once I'd acquired a couple of these I rather liked the idea (as long as it stuck to what I call the "Dublo way").

Neverwazza's as they are known (because they never was made by Dublo guv'ner) have been slowly creeping into our collection and have really added some interest to it.  Take Dad's beautiful professionally painted Caledonian liveried N2 (my 50th birthday present to him) for instance, it looks amazing compared to drab BR liveried stuff!  I myself have a London Transport liveried one and that looks jolly good too.

I saw this on eBay and was immediately on its case.  It looked like too good a opportunity to miss and I'm glad I've got it.  In short its a real Neverwazza, but in total Dublo fashion.  Its a Castle boiler and cab, shortened where necessary and affixed to a 8F footplate, with brass bits attached to make the distinctive splashers.  This all sits on a scratchbuilt chassis (Romford drivers, X04 motor) with the cylinders provided by a Graham Farish OO gauge (yup I really am that sad I can tell this) prairie tank.  The Dublo Castle bogie remains unaltered.  All this sounds like a horrendous mongrel but it really does look like a County.

After a oil and a clean the chassis ran very well (good start) and the wheels would run on Dublo 3 rail track (even better start).  The plan is (and I've already painted it so watch out for that in the next post) to get an 8F tender chassis and stick a Bachmann or Hornby Hawksworth tender body on it to create the tender and also convert it to 3 rail.  Livery will be BR black, I've ordered the name and number plates, it will become County of Somerset (where Dad is from) and presented to him at Christmas.  Hopefully it won't take long!  The outcome will be a Great Western County, more or less as Dublo would have done it, and best of all, nobody else will have one!