I've taken a bit of a break from the little hunslet. It's painted almost I'm just awaiting transfers before I go any further.
I've been pottering about getting some other mainline locos up & running recently for our group layout that I am involved in.
A good few years ago I was over at my friend's shop after he'd bought his latest collection. Whilst having a quick look I came across a djh b16. It was reasonably well built in 00 but for some unknown reason the builder had stuck a hornby ring field motor in the tender & made it tender drive.
It's sat in a box for I don't know how long & it's finally come across the bench.
The first job was to address the tender. One of my friends has what can only be described as a modellers Barry Island in his workshop & he came up trumps with a chassis kit for a lner group standard tender. This was great I thought until I got home to realise it was a north eastern tender. This stalled the project & then I took another look at it. The axle spacing was fine for 2 of the 3 axles so I took the drastic measure to do a cut & shut. I ordered some markits wheels for the project some years ago to fit the tender.
After starting the project the other day I realised something else. The chassis was nowhere near the right place for the tender wheels I had got. After I had done the cut & shut & got the chassis to sit in the tender level I didn't take into account the wheels. It sat too high. To combat this I started routing my spare wheels box to find something suitable. In the end I dug up some really old wheelsets from some maj models kits. I think the wheels actually pre date me.
With the tender now sat at the correct height to the loco I could now get on with em'ing the loco. It wasn't really a problem to do & after putting a djh gearbox in & some pick ups on the loco I was ready to test. Off she went on the colliery track.
With this done it was on to weathering.
View attachment 175259View attachment 175260View attachment 175261View attachment 175262
The weathering wasn't without its issues. I had put some paint into my airbrush which was a very expensive iwata some years ago, only for the neck of the paint jar to snap in the brush. I have a feeling that's heading for the bin now. I had to rush into the garage to find a cheap Chinese brush I've had for years. Funnily enough after a quick service it's fired to life thankfully.
I've still a few bits to do the loco but I'm rather happy with how it's turned out. I do have a thing for north eastern prototypes & have had a few layouts in the past inspired by the old north eastern railway.
Si