C. R. PHILLIPS

Model Railway Kit Construction and Model Painting

 

Welcome to my web site. This is a record of some 20 years as a professional model maker, although I have actually been railway modelling for over half-a-century (yes, I'm knocking-on a bit!) - beginning as soon as I was old enough to be trusted with a soldering iron without burning the house down !  If you are a regular reader of railway modelling magazines, you may have come across my name before, as until recently I advertised in Railway Modeller every month.  Over the years I developed a world-wide reputation for quality work, and cultivated hundreds of satisfied customers.  If you have used my services in the past, you will know that this is no idle boast, but an accurate reflection of the service I offered.  As my many customers will confirm, you didn't get a cheap job from me, either in price or quality - what you did get was finely-constructed and / or painted model which you could be proud of. 

With retirement rapidly approaching in 2020, and with a full order book now in place, I can no longer accept any new kit-building commissions.  However, new additions to these pages will still be posted as I slowly work through my order book, so please visit again, and keep up with all the interesting items which I have in store.  I also intend to keep the web site running after my retirement, for modellers to use as a reference source, because it not only illustrates what is out there in kit form, but also what can be achieved by the way of making more unusual models by modifying or substituting a kit's components.  This site is also a valuable reference source for liveries which were carried by the real locos etc, during various stages of their working lives.   

 I not only built and / or painted locomotive kits, although most of the pictures on this site are of locos (it's simply what I got asked to build most often), but anything you could possibly want for your railway. Whether you needed rolling stock, a building, some platform furniture, personnel or a motor vehicle; in cast white-metal, etched brass or nickel silver, plastic, resin or plaster, I could help.

On this site you will see a selection of photographs of the models I have built and / or painted over the years. Previous customers may even see some of their models gracing the various pages - thank you. Most of the models are straight-forward (!), 'out of the box' kit-built, but as hinted at above, there are some modified kits, and also modified ready-to-run models just waiting to be discovered, which not only serve to indicate what is out there in kit form, but also what is possible to achieve in the way of individualizing your stock with a little ingenuity, whether modifying a regular kit or a proprietary model.

You will notice a difference in the style and quality of the pictures on this site.  This is because the early shots are all taken outdoors in natural light with a film camera, on plain board for the base and the background.  In the mid-noughties I bought my first digital SLR camera, which allowed me to pose customers' models on my layout - the digital camera's internal electronic wizardry automatically compensating for the odd colour of fluorescent lighting, which in film days, without filters, would have given the photos a weird colour cast.

Unless otherwise stated, all models pictured on this web site are 4mm scale. This is not because it is the only scale I worked in, but because it is Britain's most popular for railway modellers, and it is the one that just happened to make up most of my commissions. It is also the scale I model in, and some models featured are actually mine.

All models built for customers, were done so on a 'commission-only' basis, and are to their individual specifications, so no responsibility can be taken for historical inaccuracies - I just did what I was asked..

This site is intentionally simple and easy to navigate. I designed it myself (on a rather prehistoric - in IT terms anyway - web page-designing program), and I'm the one who has to update it, and to be honest, I'm a bit of a 'techno-thickie', so you'll excuse me if I stick with what I know ! There are up to six pictures on each page. I designed the pages like this so that if you don't possess broadband, it wouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to download each one. Please be patient - the wait will be worth it.

You will notice that I have titled the pages as BR (steam and diesel), and the Big Four, post-Grouping companies - this was done for simplicity. However, you will also find, many pre-Grouping railway company models, which have been arranged under the banner of the appropriate Big Four company that absorbed the smaller ones in 1923.

 

 

British Railways Standard Steam Models page 1 / page 2

Great Western Railway and BR (WR) Models page 1 / page 2 / page 3 / page 4 / page 5 / page 6 / page 7 / page 8 / page 9 / page 10 / page 11 - The 'Atbaras' / page 12 / page 13 / page 14 / page 15 / page 16 - A 'Duke' Restoration Project / page 17 / page18 / page 19

London Midland and Scottish Railway and BR (LMR) Models page 1 / page 2 / page 3 / page 4 / page 5 / page 6 / page 7 / page 8

London and North Eastern Railway and BR (ER) Models page 1 / page 2 / page 3 / page 4 / page 5 / page 6 / page 7 / page 8 / page 9 / page 10 / page 11 / page 12 / page 13 / page 14

Southern Railway and BR (SR) Models page 1 / page 2 / page 3 / page 4 / page 5 / page 6 / page 7 / page 8 / page 9 / page 10 / page 11 / page 12 / page 13 / page 14 / page 15  / page 16  / page 17

British Railways Diesel and Electric Models page 1 / page 2 - The Blue Pullman / page 3

Industrial, Military, and Minor-Railway Models page 1

Road Vehicles page 1 / page 2

Buildings page 1

 

My layout as it has appeared for almost 20 years, in circa 1960 guise page1 / page 2 / page 3 / page4 / page 5 / page 6 / page 7 / page 8

 

  In the latter half of 2020, plans were devised to make my layout into a multi-era one.  In addition to the circa 1960 Coleston as seen above, I also have enough locos and rolling stock in my collection, in liveries from different eras in history, to be able to ring the changes as and when it suits me.  So, with a few changes to the scenics (station colours, road vehicles etc), I will be able, quite effectively, to run my layout in 1920s / 1930s period, or late 1940s / early 1950s guise too. 

Backdating the layout scenically need not necessarily be that daunting a task, because despite Nationalization in 1948, it would have taken some years for the newly-formed British Railways to get around to repainting all of the stations and their environs into the new colours, so it is quite feasible to assume that the old GWR livery for infrastructure would have persisted for some time into the 1950s, even though the rolling stock livery, and ownership markings, had changed.  In fact historical photos show that some stations never got repainted at all, and stayed in the 'old company's' colours until closure by Beeching in the 1960s ! 

So on this pretext, I have planned a programme of acquiring a duplicate set of buildings etc, to be painted in GWR livery, to serve as a basis for the two planned earlier eras (1920s / 1930s, and late 1940s / early 1950s).  This, along with an alternative set of road vehicles for the earlier historical periods, is going to make this a very interesting development for Coleston.

Mention of my not-inconsiderable collection of rolling stock above, is a significant one.  As time passed by, as indeed we all know it must, the railways' continual scrapping of old stock, and the designing of new, more modern replacements, altered their look considerably with each passing age.  For example, 'Dukes', 'Bulldogs' and 'Aberdares' would have been a common sight on the GWR in the 1920s and 1930s, but the last of these particular classes of loco were withdrawn from service soon after Nationalization, and would therefore not have been seen in 1960 at all.  On the other hand, the Hawksworth designs (the 4-6-0 'County' class, the 94XX and 15XX pannier tanks) did not appear until the late 1940s, so would obviously not have been seen in the 1920s / 1930s era.  Also, main line diesel power was a late 1950s development, so 'Westerns', 'Warships' and indeed the Blue Pullman would not have been seen in either earlier eras.

Bearing this in mind then, each of these new eras planned for Coleston will have its own individual appearance and flavour, so the coming developments are going to be very interesting.   

A small start was made on this project during my traditional Christmas break in 2020, and links to the first few pictures, featuring Coleston in its late 40s / early 50s guise are below.  The 1920s / 1930s incarnation of Coleston is a future development - watch this space !

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Why build kits?

Please spend a couple of minutes to find out why kit-building is so important to our hobby.
 

 

Links :- Why not visit my links page? It has access to websites of various kit manufacturers, shops and dealers, component suppliers etc, that I have used over the years, and magazines too.

 

Happy Modelling