Marsh Lane
Western Thunderer
Afternoon all,
I've 'lurked' on this forum for a while, but have held back from actually creating a thread, feeling that in the spirit of the forum, I actually needed to be progressing with some modelling. I do have a thread over on rmWeb which I shall continue to update, but thought it may be useful/interesting to those on here.
I am an O gauge modeller who has built up a reasonable collection of mostly 1980s Heljan vehicles over the past 10-12 years, some of which have been professionally repainted as I never had the courage to attempt to repaint or detail a £500 model! However, I am start to feel more adventurous this past few months, and having made the big decision to move my modelling period to the late 1950s/early 1960s (some 20 odd years before I was born!) I was faced with selling a sizeable amount of stock that was in the wrong liveries.
Instead, I've decided to start with a small achievable project and start doing some repaints and detailing. I have a 10-coach Heljan Mk1 rake, and yes I know there is the argument for the shape of the body shells, but they look decent to me. Hence the first one, a Royal Mail red-liveried Mk1 has entered the workshops (my comical name for the kitchen table) for repaint and improvement.
Current plan is a five-point approach:
1) Strip the vehicle down to its bare sections, and undertake a repaint into all over Maroon, using Fox lining transfers, with Railtec numbering and detailing transfers. Finally weather the chassis.
2) The bogies are to be changed to Easybuild ones to allow better running, and fit with pick-ups.
3) The awkward screw couplings will be replaced. Im unsure at the moment whether to go Kadee, or look at the AJ Coupings, which look far better, but im not sure if they are suitable to 7mm.
4) Internally, paint the guards area. Fit something resembling the normal cages - im sure I've seen an etched brass detailing kit somewhere.
5) Fit lighting to the guards compartment, fit a oil tail lamp, and wire back to a small function only decoder.
That is the grand plan! I only get a day or so each week to work on things, so progress is unlikely to be quick, added to which it needs to be warmer to deal with the respray anyway, so those five tasks may well get dealt with in a different order! If all goes to plan, then I'll move onto the next BG which will be outcropped in Crimson & Cream. Next after that will be to create a full 'Crimson & Cream' passenger set, with the FK, SO, RBB and BSK all being fitted with full lighting and passengers as well.
If anyone has any thoughts or advice please do shout and let me know! All help and advice is gratefully appreciated.
I've 'lurked' on this forum for a while, but have held back from actually creating a thread, feeling that in the spirit of the forum, I actually needed to be progressing with some modelling. I do have a thread over on rmWeb which I shall continue to update, but thought it may be useful/interesting to those on here.
I am an O gauge modeller who has built up a reasonable collection of mostly 1980s Heljan vehicles over the past 10-12 years, some of which have been professionally repainted as I never had the courage to attempt to repaint or detail a £500 model! However, I am start to feel more adventurous this past few months, and having made the big decision to move my modelling period to the late 1950s/early 1960s (some 20 odd years before I was born!) I was faced with selling a sizeable amount of stock that was in the wrong liveries.
Instead, I've decided to start with a small achievable project and start doing some repaints and detailing. I have a 10-coach Heljan Mk1 rake, and yes I know there is the argument for the shape of the body shells, but they look decent to me. Hence the first one, a Royal Mail red-liveried Mk1 has entered the workshops (my comical name for the kitchen table) for repaint and improvement.
Current plan is a five-point approach:
1) Strip the vehicle down to its bare sections, and undertake a repaint into all over Maroon, using Fox lining transfers, with Railtec numbering and detailing transfers. Finally weather the chassis.
2) The bogies are to be changed to Easybuild ones to allow better running, and fit with pick-ups.
3) The awkward screw couplings will be replaced. Im unsure at the moment whether to go Kadee, or look at the AJ Coupings, which look far better, but im not sure if they are suitable to 7mm.
4) Internally, paint the guards area. Fit something resembling the normal cages - im sure I've seen an etched brass detailing kit somewhere.
5) Fit lighting to the guards compartment, fit a oil tail lamp, and wire back to a small function only decoder.
That is the grand plan! I only get a day or so each week to work on things, so progress is unlikely to be quick, added to which it needs to be warmer to deal with the respray anyway, so those five tasks may well get dealt with in a different order! If all goes to plan, then I'll move onto the next BG which will be outcropped in Crimson & Cream. Next after that will be to create a full 'Crimson & Cream' passenger set, with the FK, SO, RBB and BSK all being fitted with full lighting and passengers as well.
If anyone has any thoughts or advice please do shout and let me know! All help and advice is gratefully appreciated.