Project Criccieth - Painting/Completion

And after a trip to the paintshop, Criccieth Castle is finished. Just need to order some custom nameplates from Narrow Planet to complete the model but otherwise, its done.

Criccieth Castle - Left hand side

Criccieth Castle - Right hand side

Criccieth Castle and Harlech Castle together

I personally think its come out quite well considering progress on it was pretty much on and off thoughout the day.

Until next time,

Jon

Project Criccieth - Construction

Well today, Criccieth Castle really took shape. Below is a selection of photographs of the engine as work progressed in my many breaks between exam revision.

Below Filling the gaps of the front Bonnet

After filing back of the filler and shortly after fitting/adjusting the chassis

Criccieth Castle ready for painting

Time to break the paint brushes out I think.

Until Next time,

Jon

Project Criccieth - It begins

Since the parts needed to make Criccieth Castle have arrived, work on the loco has started with cleaning up components and the first few mods needed to the kit. Hopefully work on the body will start tomorrow.

The Chassis and the donor kit

First few modified pieces for Criccieth

Until next time,

Jon

Project Criccieth - The Beginning

Evening all,

Well today I finally ordered all the bits needed to make Criccieth Castle for the 009 layouts. I'm planning to use a Grafar 08 Chassis and the ex Chivers Finelines Harlech Castle kit to do this like a number of other people have done successfully but what I'm sort of looking forward to, is the fact this is my first ever proper kit bash of any sort so will be a first for me.

Photos once the parts arrive and work finally starts on this mini project.

Until next time,

Jon

New Carriage for Blaencwm

One thing I've wanted to do is have a few coaches that run on the two 009 layouts that aren't FR/WHR. So after a few nights work, here's the first one. Its composed of 2 Penrhyn Quarry 4 wheelers with the running gear removed running on a extended Parkside Dundas Hudson Chassis. Hopefully I'm planning to build another one along with two coaches based on Parkside Dundas Hudson Coach kits.

Until next time,
Jon R

Blaencwm - Future plans

With a period of no work on any of the layouts due to exams coming up, now seems like a good time to look to the future of them, in particular, the two 009 layouts Blaencwm and Blaencwm works.

In recent times, the focus has been on growing the number of FR steam engines such as Palmerston and Lyd with most of them being based on either Chivers Finelines or Langley Miniatures kits. Maybe its time to make some of the FR diesels for a change. Currently, I only have Harlech Castle which is one of the PW diesels. However, I do plan to have two more of the smaller admitically passenger diesels in 009 as well by the end of the year.

Upnor Castle - Running on a Kato Chassis (Off the FR Society Website)

Criccieth Castle - Running on a Gafar Chassis (Off the FR Society Website)

The Current plan is for Upnor Castle to be commission built so it arrives ready to run on the track. However for Criccieth Castle, I'm planning to kit bash a Chivers Finelines Harlech Castle kit into Criccieth Castle. The plan being to create a representative model of the engine bashed on the parts in the kit with a few modifications.

Rolling stock is something that's also being thought about at great length. Most of the FR stock I have is the modern corridor stock used on all main passenger services on the FR. These are huge on the tiny Blaencwn meaning trains of only 1 coach are normally seen running on the layout. At the moment, plans are for a set of coaches which are only run on Blaencwm to be built up based on the Hudson Toast rack design using kits from the 009 Society. That said, I am due to take delivery of the final coach from the current batch soon.

Carriage 112 - Running on Parkside Dundas Bogies (Off the Boston Largs works Website)

I'm also planning to finally get round to painting the large amount of L&BR goods stock into Southern Railway colours to match Exe and Yeo.

With lots to do and not a lot of time (or money) in which to do them, seems like this will be more than enough to see me though to the end of the summer at least.

Until next time,

Jon