What did you do to your trains today?

A day after the Toby mod, the makeshift Express Coaches were painted. I must say they're two of my best repaints in quite some time.



Apart from the ventilators, different windows, grey ends and less rounded tops (as well as the buffers and axleboxes on their chassis), they're near perfect stand ins for the actual TOMY ones. It's not the first time I made one from the long Clarabel, but my skills and paints have improved since my childhood customs. Regarding the inconsistent textures: The powered Annie was never repainted before, while Clarabel still has signs of the time she was painted like Koko. I've thought about sanding the roofs down to remove the ventilators after getting proper sandpaper (ideally a large piece to rub them against on a flat surface). While Spencer's coach will not be repainted, I could use it as a base for a third (cardboard) one.

[Super]

Interesting Da-lag...I like them especially what you have done with the roofs. Anxious to see them together hooked up to Gordon

Unless you meant the way they were painted, I haven't done anything with the roofs yet. Here's how they look with the Talking Gordon:



(Excuse the front wheels on the powered coach. The way they are held makes them get pressed in and cause the chassis to dip forward, even with the battery pack inside. The rear coupling will have to be fixed again until it could be replaced. By total coincidence, the tender happens to be the same length as the regular Annie/Clarabel).

[Super]

There is something about the roofs color shades and the brush strokes that appeals to me. Maybe its the camera but I like it

how about red express coaches?

how about red express coaches?

I could also make red stripes to stick over the green ones when needed so as not to replicate the whole bodies for one different colour. Besides being more accurate in that regard, it's one reason why they don't have green ends like TOMY's. Fully custom shells would only be used for totally different rolling stock (including similar shapes with different colours and detail).

Keep in mind, I have yet to learn how to duplicate Plarail wheels and/or couplings and only have three suitable coaches to use (including the powered ex Annie). Engine front wheels are spoked and don't have the right axles either.

Last night, I was able to perfect the hot melt glue face for the Take Along George after several revisions over the previous days.



It took me far longer than it should have until I got it right, and trying to redo it showed me how difficult it really was. All attempts were done by tracing over a new cut out, with the backups becoming a reference for the features. If I chose to remove the previous black or alter the original face (which wasn't that detailed) like I initially tried, I could've simply rubbed off the eyebrows and tried to reshape the mouth. Instead, I wanted to put effort to get something more akin to his other merchandise that wouldn't look too out of place when everyone else still has plastic (unlike the paper one before it). One problem is it shares one of the same issues in that it still goes too far beyond the front roller (the main reason why I got rid of the original), but I would've had to rebuild the smokebox just to correct that. The nose was finished off with Blu Tack and the pupils were done with a cotton bud handle dipped in black paint. More gloss was added since the photo was taken. The day I originally started on it, I also made minor improvements to Terence, Trevor and Elizabeth. Needless to say, I prefer it over both its predecessors. While it may not be the most practical method, it's currently the easiest way for me to get faces that look to be sculpted. Having mentioned and suggested it numerous times and shown my previous three customs with them, I've considered opening a thread to show how they're made. Until I could find a better way, expect them on all my upcoming scratch builds, mods and restoration attempts.

[Super]

Hot glue eh? Is it easy to work with or does it start setting up too fast to work with. I am assuming his original face was banged up or maybe he didn't even have a face?

Yes, hot glue for the shape and paint for the rest. The tracing is cumbersome and a tad frustrating at times (which tends to depend on the size of the model), but they do set hard fast enough to cut off the sheets and apply the paint.

Up until now, the original was previously blacked out with an undersized, incorrectly shaped, low quality paper cut out of his TV face taped over it. He was the only Take Along model I gave a paper face and didn't look right with my other vehicles. After liking how my first hot glue faces turned out, I wanted to do the same with him and get something better than both that and the original. To allow the resculpted face to fit, I broke off the plastic one and threw it out.

now that you master the art of melting the hot glue, you can now do that same thing to other characters.