FfarquharDeveloper's TrackMaster Customs

2023/10/14 Update

so, transformers brainrot is still a thing (check out the purchase thread for more info on that)

Thomas:

So I ended up having to cut the front of the smokebox off of Angry Thomas in order to remove the face without damaging it, not really a loss because that body would've shattered if I tried to use it on another custom due to the bad blue plastic and the tabs instead of screws. Gonna make a mold of this face so I can make casts of it and then repaint the original so it's not yellowed.

Big City Engine:

Childhood Henry lives another day! This uses one of the Plarail Henrys from the recent haul with a James tender from last year, the face was removed for my main Henry and a cast of the TWR BCE face was fitted on, made from a mold I had laying about from around a year ago when I made a BCE for someone else.

Fernando:

Being 100% honest I'm just making Fernando, a BWBA Diesel recolor, for the bit. He's a bit of an injoke with a group chat.

Frieda:

I sculpted Frieda's face a few weeks back and now that I have a Gordon to use for her I'm building her. There's a few reasons why I'm making her out of a Gordon that's suffered from the bad batch of Plastic.
1. I was gonna build her out of a good plastic Gordon, but frankly I don't have the patience and I really want to build her because she seems like a fun project.
2. The amount of material I'm gonna slap ontop should hopefully help reinforce the body and prevent major breakage.

Luke:

So I've repainted all his linework and eyebrows, still got a bit to work on.

Merlin:

So last year I made a Merlin for a client using a Gordon Body and Henry Tender (albeit in green with a flat drive converted by the client) and now I'm doing that this year, but for myself, and more in-line with his on-screen counterpart, but to my liking.

The Red Engine / Black James:

So I'm torn on whether I want to make a James Variant, or make the Red Engine from Sad Story of Henry (it's just james with red wheels but not james because of a retcon and illustration error)
I probably wouldn't be this torn on who it'd become if I made a sculpt for the Red Engine's face.

Victor:

Cleaned up the face, repainted the eyebrow, just need to repaint the bufferbeams, cab roof, and apply a new steamworks sticker to his left hand side.

Additionally D199 and Bear have new faces sculpted and are being actively worked on (yes I'm refurbing D199, alongside D261)

[Super]

👍👍👍

2023/10/14 Update 2

Merlin:

Rebuilt the rear of the footplate, replaced the buffers, and cut out the firebox to go back and rebuild it to have the correct shape later, removed all lining that isn’t on the boiler.

Merlin:

So last year I made a Merlin for a client using a Gordon Body and Henry Tender (albeit in green with a flat drive converted by the client) and now I'm doing that this year, but for myself, and more in-line with his on-screen counterpart, but to my liking.

Does that mean they somehow managed to install the self contained flat drive instead of the original C tender unit? I knew they looked similar but didn't know the flat drive would fit (at least not with the battery in). Would the shell of a Henry tender fit on the Edward/Gordon/James chassis, or does it have other differences apart from the side frames? Either way, that could be the first time I've seen anyone doing this mod.

Yeah, they managed to do it, although it was incredibly fiddly and not fun to work with. Henry's tender is not compatible with any of the other linked tender chassis. However it and the motor can be swapped out with Gordon and James, not Edward though

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2023/10/16 Update

Merlin:

- Reshaped the front of the footplate
- Added new tender cover
- Added coal to the tender cover
- Added the little bands on the roof
- Filled in the firebox
- Filled in the front cab window and extensively widened the rear cab window
- Started work on the long connected wheelarch
- Added the smoke deflectors
- Added new funnels
- cut the frames off from the smokebox and fitted them to the footplate (the little black things that are like neck supports)
- Cut the tender down and fitted some cushioning from the Diesel 10 in the lot to support a double a battery inside rather than a C due to the cutdown modifications.

[Super]

Love that face 👍

2023/10/30 update
this might be my last post here for quite some time if not indefinitely so

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alright, lets do this one last time. my name is roxaclock. i was hit with motivation to make customs at a young age and for the last seven years i've been a custom maker. i'm pretty sure you know the rest.

D7101:
Finally got around to painting him up, he's nearly done, the last coat on the roof (hopefully) is going on right now.


Bear:
Also got around to painting him, I have two other bears I'm doing as commissions and I was waiting to do all four bear shells at once, shares a chassis (and for now the same face) as D7101 since theyre the same character.


Merlin:
Finished painting him, just needs stickers, a few more coats of black, and a clearcoat.


D199:
Repainted him fully and constructed a proper back for him. New facesculpt aswell.


Dudley:
This is what that third gordon was turned into, completed in about two days.


Frieda:
Cut bufferbeam clean, tender down, and added smoke deflectors.


Vinnie:
Finally pulling him out of storage to finish him now that I have another fuel tanker i can use disposably as his tender.

[Super]

I love your faces F-far, a lot of character I see in the design. 👍

hasnt been quite six months yet so i can't make the "SIX MONTHS" joke

2024/03/15

Frieda:
Frieda's not done and she isn't perfect but she's close enough to being done and when positioned correctly the incomplete wheels aren't that noticable since they're really covered up and the in the right lighting conditions arent really visible.



- added a slab of milliput on first to make it easier to add the rest on later (i had excess from another project i was workng on that night and threw the remainder on frieda)
- threw some sticks on to extend the casing upwards
- added pre-cut styrene to both ends to form the bulk of the shape
- filled in the gaps
- filed and sanded everything down smooth
- added bufferbeam
- built tender cover
- painted blue and red
-- wheels still need more red paint i didnt get enough on the loco wheels
- reassembled everything
- painted on the other details by hand, ALL of the other details, yes that includes the numbers too i painted those on by hand

She does run still, I didn't have to replace the motor or rewire her during the painting process

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Big City Engine:
1. Cut off topfeed and dome
2. Extended firebox
3. Added new dome
4. Painted
5. Sticker added
6. done, needs rewiring

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Changed my username to roxaclock months ago by the way (not on this site since it's not an option womp womp), please refer to me as that or any variation of the name (roxa, rox, roxaclock, aclock, clock, rc), just not "ffar" or any variation of that username anymore.

Haven't done much custom related things recently since I'm going through a rough patch, my focus has shifted fast from Thomas to Transformers within the past 10 months, and I haven't really gotten around to starting too many new projects.

Won't go into detail about why life sucks right now but is definitely another rough patch again after getting out of a 13-month rough patch. Nothing for yall here on the forums to worry about or concern yourselves with.

[Super]

Well done Ffar...I like em 👍