i have 2 magnum opuses, my gordon model, and my thomas model, here, ill be talking about my thomas model, and how i made him
lets start at september 24, 2024 i had started on this project, i had always planned on this to be a sort of hybrid model, combining thomas with the real life E2
but, i also wanted to combine him with my favorite car ever, the 1964 impala,if you know, you know, bringing the bodystyle in with it as sort of add on plating and headlights, they are still available on the model so to speak, but i dont didnt like that very much
features on this model are mostly what you would expect,a extended cab and new windows, and a flat rear board,
now though, i had decided to add some other stuff too to differentiate mine and because i felt like i wanted too, i had ripped some parts from my previous thomas model, being a TVS based hybrid, the changes being a square smokebox saddle, tvs funnel, square side tank with tvs esque filler caps, uncovered safety valves, 2 seperate whistles(that arent wonky),his tv series controls,removing the weird hump infront of the smkoebox,a walschaerts valve gear, and wire rims.
now, some of these seem justified, some dont, ill go through and explain them all,
first, the small stuff, the smokebox and tanks was made square to keep in line with thomas's general shape in the show, same with the filler caps and the smokebox hump thing.
onto some of the other changes, the wire wheels were ment to go with the impala overbody, i had done wire wheels before on my james model
and decided to add some to this model,i personally like them, but i can get if some dont.
many now onto the walschaerts, i made this because i couldnt for the life of me figure out how to to make it due too the steam chest being underthe pistons, which is extremely weird, so i had decided to just scrap it