FfarquharDeveloper's TrackMaster Customs

FfarquharDeveloper · 2021-01-15T03:21:24+00:00

Wasn't entirely sure if this would fit under TrackMaster or Modification Gallery so I placed it here.Â Made it a different thread so I'd stop clogging the "W...

FfarquharDeveloper

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.

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.
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

ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

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.

DalaGStanator

FfarquharDeveloper wrote
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.

FfarquharDeveloper

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

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 ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

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

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. ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

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

Big City Engine:

Cut off topfeed and dome
Extended firebox
Added new dome
Painted
Sticker added
done, needs rewiring

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 ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

Went back to the start of the thread and learned that some of the oldest photos are no longer on the site, that's a shame. Most photos are still backed up on my computer, I should be able to reupload them another time.

New update next month.

FfarquharDeveloper

2024/07/09 update

Bertram:

did not do the siderod modification on this one, came from previous owner
sculpted the face myself
primed and then repainted the entire thing by hand + masking tape
everything is paint even the nameplates
gold lining > red lining, it objectively looks way better
no i don't plan on getting an official bertram this works just fine for me.

more posts eventually, i've kinda fallen out of love with thomas like it's no longer my dominant interest but it is the consistent one as i cycle through new and old interests, thats kinda why i don't really post as often anymore

ashima's done

timothy samson glynn vinnie and porter are all happening at some point (customs)

also picked up a pair of works unit coaches off ebay since the 7th was my birthday and they arrived on the 8th (TOMY Day, if you know you know, won't be sharing the context here)

Super

Very nice work Ffar ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

2024/07/19 update

Timothy:

Here's a progress update on Timothy for the first time.

I started off by cutting down the cab and everything on the footplate of the Ben.
Then I fitted the Percy boiler that was cut away from the old Wilbert's cab and went to work on cutting it down to use as Timothy's boiler.
After that I started using filler putty and stuck a couple of nails on to hold the boiler down to the chassis permanently.
Up next was adding the cab walls and the back section. His little tube at the back was made out of paintbrush handle and stuck on, while the rest of his back was reshaped with filler putty and styrene.
When I finally came back to working on him today I cut out styrene sheets to make his sideplates.
Next was drilling out holes in the wheels I'd be using for Timothy's siderods to remove the excess material. These were stuck ontop of mixing stick cut down, split down the middle, and glued together to give it the space needed to make the clearance. These were then glued onto the wheels after the siderods were placed in.
The axles for the rods to go on were way trickier, as this required using more of the mixing sticks to make the wheels. These were glued on and then drilled through to fit the axles on. The rods just have to placed on and removed when taking him on and off the chassis to remove the battery.
The roof is a single piece of styrene bent with a hole cutout at the back for the switch.

The next steps are adding his dome, cutting his sideplates, casting a face out for him, finishing the front section, making the other side of the cab even, and making him smooth before painting. Going to have to pickup Tamiya's TS-15 Blue for him. It'd be the right color for Sidney too but I like him in the brighter blue like Wilbert MK2 before him.

Super

Interesting...Anxious to see Timothy's next update ðŸ‘

FfarquharDeveloper

Well you're not gonna have to wait long

2024/07/21 Update

Timothy:

Apologies for the rubbish angle I really do not feel like getting a better angle at the moment.

Progress:

I've gone in and trimmed his sideplates down now.
He now has a taller funnel and a dome!
He's been primed and sanded a couple times and will get a couple more priming and sanding before I paint him up in the blue on saturday.

All thats left sculpt wise is fixing the rear of him to patch up the cracks and finish up around the smokebox and then its off to casting the face and painting Timothy.

Tune back in on Monday for another update, probably won't be Timothy though.

Super

Looking good so far F-far. What is that J.W.E The Rotary to the left of Timothy?

Destination Realization

“Rubbish” Said Thomas, nice reference Ffarquhar

Therealblack64YT

Super wrote
Looking good so far F-far. What is that J.W.E The Rotary to the left of Timothy?

Dustin

FfarquharDeveloper

2024/07/27 update

Bradford:

Designed Bradford myself in tinkercad to be printed out in 9 sections and to slot ontop of a breakdown crane flatbed with the cylindrical tower for the crane to fasten onto.
I have paint on-hand but some filling and sanding needs to be taken care of first before I can prime and paint him.

Timothy:

Ended up just brush painting him entirely, freehanded too, no masking tape used just precision by hand.
Still have a teeny bit to paint him in but we'll get there eventually.
Face is gonna be cast out of a TM2 Timothy and then plonked onto the front and that'll be it for him.

Timothy Paint-List:

Apple Barrel:
-- Admiral Blue
-- Red Apple
-- Black
-- Bright Yellow
FolkArt:
-- Metallic Rose Gold

« Previous Page Next Page »