Percy Donor Chassis

 Today a donor Bachmann N gauge 'Percy' arrived in the post, I removed the 'Percy' body from the chassis, painted the chassis, fitted it in the Bagnall saddle tank, and finally fitted the crew. 😊

New chassis painted and fitted to Melba.

All female crew onboard Melba.

Keith

Macaw B

On the 8th of March during a visit to Statfold Barn, they were running a freight train which had this Macaw B in it, and I thought it would make an interesting model to make.

 I came across this photo with a loco on it which got me thinking.

I purchased a pair of bogies, fitted some couplings, and a set of redundant brake levers then fitted the wheels.

Having put it aside for a month whilst I thought of a solution for mounting the bogies to the constructed wagon, I came up with the idea of using a pair of cup washers to act a bearings for the bogies.

I sprayed the wagon and bogies with primer paint.

I then painted it.

However, I realised after painting the bogies black that this was wrong, so repainted them in the grey.

Then I added some transfers.

It is seen here amidst the other Statfold Barn wagons.

At the end of April I purchased this Fourdees model of 'Dot' to build as a load for the Macaw B. It comes with a static chassis, but can be fitted with a Bachmann 'N' gauge 'Percy'.

I assembled it and sprayed it with primer.

Then I sprayed the body in British Railways crimson and the chassis I started to spray in satin black, but the spray can ran out, so I had to hand paint it in gloss black instead.

The assembled model looks quite promising, with couplings fitted.

The buffer beams were painted red, the footplate black, the smokebox and chimney were given a splash of matt black and pipes and fittings a coat of copper and brass paint. Real coal was added to the coal bunkers on each side.

Finally lining was applied and a set of nameplates giving it the name 'Melba'. It goes rather well with my Skarloey. 

Keith