Desert Sand liveried Westerns

[newportnobby]

Having missed the first run I've had my name down for months at Osborns for the next run but, of course, this is contingent on when Dapol are next producing.
Can you give me any guidance as to a likely 'when' please?

[Joel Dapol]

Not for a while I am afraid as we have stock of most variants. If pushed I would say 2018.

[newportnobby]

Thanks, Joel. At least my wallet can breath a sigh of relief as the class 33 and the Battle of Britain are on pre order

[Elvinley]

Quite a complicated story on my Western. After a while I felt I couldn't justify keeping it due to the high value of the loco, so sold it on. It came back from the buyer as it had failed on them resulting in distortion to the body. I had a very helpful response from Joel when I reported this but there weren't any spare bodies. Another form of compensation was given. After this I repaired the body and sent it for partial respray and weathering to Grimy Times. The loco now runs with a different chassis and looks great again. The value has been lowered but this means I feel more happy to keep it. I doubt anyone else has had their's weathered, but it looks great like this IMO.

[newportnobby]

Looks smashing. I want one. I want one!

[Hailstone]

Ian,

Did you do the rubbing down yourself? if so can you tell me what you used - I haven't had this happen to me yet (fingers crossed!) but would like to know as the finished item still looks superb, and as you are no doubt aware preparation before painting is 80% of the finish

Regards,

Alex

[Elvinley]

Hailstone Yes I did Alex. There are more photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/755644...57649709754366 One photo shows the body after sanding the area with very fine sand paper. The distorted area was just cut away with a knife before sanding. No filler was used.

[Hailstone]

Thanks Ian, I must say it was a very brave act to take a knife to it!

[Elvinley]

Well, it was either that or scrap it! Really glad I tried as it looks great now. I wouldn't have had the tools or expertise to do the respray so I left that to the experts but it wasn't expensive to get it done.

[Georgehgv]

My Western Enterprise Desert Sand has never been a good runner, I too have considered selling it but decided to boldly go and took the bogies out and cleaned all the dirty grease out and checked the contacts which were also dirty and one which was not making any contact adjusted so it did. A light oiling and it goes far better than ever. I might add that this was bought new and probably not had a couple of hours running. Anyway glad I tackled what may seem a simple task but to me was a big step into the unknown. One great runner now. 👍

[Longbow]

Mine too. The current batch of Westerns do appear to be prone to the problem you describe. Fortunately the pull-out bogie mechanisms make cleaning relatively simple.