O gauge class 33 repaint, a BSK and a SPV

 A happy new year to one and all!

I have been continuing to make some headway on several models over the festive period and it has been great to have some time to dedicate to modelling/painting each day. I stripped down a class 33 earlier in this year, which was the Heljan model I brought for a bargain price in BR green/FYE livery for a repaint. The chassis/underframe/bogies have all been weathered and are ready for reassembly. Once reassembled I will be able to add in the Loksound V5XL decoder and add a speaker to the fuel tanks - these are being ordered today. The body shell had a light priming (I ran out of primer part way through and need to order some more) and then had some basic pre-shading applied, before the first coats of yellow on the ends. One of the best bits about stripping a body shell is that the weathering process can be incorporated into the painting process, allowing some depth and subtlety to the finish. The locomotive will be finished in BR blue, suitable for the mid 1970s - so not too scruffy as the class 33s were repainted into BR blue around 1973/74.

Basic pre-shading work applied with weathered black from an airbrush, alongside some streaking grime enamel wash.

The second coat of faded yellow applied to the ends.

The BSK project has moved on a little. I decided to remove all of the coach side fittings, such as handrails, handles etc. In doing so I obviously managed to lose a few of these, so I have emailed Lionheart to enquire if they can send me some spares. The windows at either end have had some plasticard simply glued across them. Having a look at some prototype photographs on the web, coaches within the engineering fleet seemed to have various windows welded shut. So I have added a couple of these for variation. The coach sides are now ready to have a wash today and go into the paint boxes. I can see the repainting of this coach into engineering olive will be difficult, as the windows have pre painted divisions on them, so getting these to match the coach sides is going to be tricky. I suspect that I will have to keep the livery application pretty simple and add the windows in as soon as possible, so the different window frames do not stand out too much.

The BSK for the engineering Enparts train, now ready for a wash and to head into the paint boxes.

The BR blue parcels SPV wagon was also a complete repaint. The transfer application on the first attempt was rubbish, the wagon ran poorly and I also dropped it on the floor and dented the roof. So this also went into a bath of Superstrip some months (maybe years!) ago. It is just about finished, although I will apply one more coat of matt varnish this morning. This wagon has been an utter dust magnet, despite being kept inside a Really Useful Box. I have no idea how this happened, although the painting on this wagon started before we decorated the hallway - which is probably the reason. Anyhow, this wagon is a much better attempt than then the first version and despite the dust, I am pretty pleased with it. 

The Parkside SPV wagon nearly finished.

So some cracking progress and I have been thoroughly enjoying myself. With the SPV finished off today and a lowfit wagon nearing completion, it certainly feels like things are moving again after a longish hiatus this year. There are more wagons entering the paint boxes over the coming weeks and I also want to get the scenery moving on the layout - so as always plenty to do...hopefully more progress to report soon....

Enparts Engineering Train

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas. We have had a very relaxed Christmas day and I even managed to find some time for modelling, in between the cooking and social engagements! With the layout packed up for Xmas I returned to building some wagon kits and painting with the air brush. Over the course of the next few months I am optimistic I can really get going with the scenery on the layout and I expect this will dominate my modelling time. So before this happens I wanted to build/detail a couple of wagons/coaches and put them in the paint boxes, so they can be slowly painted over the coming months.

Having finished the milk tanker recently, I  started to pull together the kits/rtr for a small Enparts train, consisting of a BSK, CCT, BY and 12T wagon, all finished in engineers olive green. The BSK is the Lionheart model in BR (S) green. I purchased this for a bargain price, with the aim of detailing/respraying it. So yesterday I plonked this coach down on the table and got around to taking it apart. The good news was that the vast majority of the coach was screwed together, which meant taking it apart was quite easy. The coach is beautifully detailed and there were many separately fitted, screwed in components. I took photographs as I went, due to the complexity of putting it back together in a few weeks when it has been painted. The only glue that required gently snapping was where the coach sides and ends met, and the amount of glue applied was pretty sparse. So a completely dismantled BSK coach - lets hope it goes back together OK. There are a few modifications to make the body sides, such as blanking out some of the windows, which will require the glazing to be cut, but these are relatively quick modelling tasks that can be completed over the next week.

All the components for the BSK coach. The coach sides have since had the transfers removed and the bogies have been dismantled and masked.

The next vehicle in the rake is a BR mk1 CCT. I purchased the Heljan model in the olive green livery, which I know is cheating a little! This model just needs dismantling and putting into the painting boxes. The third wagon is a 12T van with plywood sides, which is being built from the standard Slaters kit. I am about halfway through this build and hope to finish it off over the next week. The final vehicle in the rake is a SR BY van, which is again going to be constructed from the Slaters kit. This van has not been started yet, but I plan to slowly build this one through January, when the layout is not set up.

The Heljan BR mk1 CCT, already rtr in olive green. This just requires dismantling and weathering.

Slaters 12T van with plywood sides. I am optimistic I can finish this wagon over the next week!

So there is the first fixed rake train for the O gauge layout. It is a relatively simple rake to construct and continues my modelling of engineering wagons, which I am endlessly fascinated by. The lovely thing about O gauge is the time it takes to construct a single vehicle and the detail you can add during the build - it certainly adds to the realism and enjoyment for me. Other projects are working their way through the paint boxes including an SPV, a Lowfit wagon, a 13T open wagon and the class 33 re-paint. Hopefully, these projects will also come to fruition in the coming months.

Slaters O Gauge Milk Tanker Built

The layout I am building has a small dairy siding for the delivery of milk to the railway and I am building a small train of milk tankers for this imaginary facility. I expect I will need somewhere up to 6(?) milk tankers for this train, although building these will be a slow ongoing process. Anyhow, I have finally finished building the first milk tanker from the Slaters kit. This is one of the best model railway wagons I have built, being a superbly designed kit. However, it is quite an involved build and constructing the first one was a bit of a learning curve. I am hoping that the subsequent builds will be a little quicker (and a little better), now knowing some of the knacks that are required for the kit.

The build of the wagon is now finished. The body/underframe/ladders are not yet glued together and will be painted separately.

The kit was built as per the instructions, with the exception of the strapping that I constructed from plasticard strips rather than the brass castings. This was just an oversight by me not reading the instructions properly, but once painted I doubt it will be noticeable. On the ends of the plasticard strips I glued some brass rod, which fits into a brass socket glued onto the tanker solebar. I wish I had drilled out thee brass sockets first whilst hey were still on the frets, before gluing them in place. At least I know for next time. The ladders were also tricky to build and will need some careful fettling to get them to sit squarely on the tanker. In the photos there are also some extra holes on the tanker ends that have subsequently been filled in.

End view of the milk tanker. The drill holes on the horizontal beam have now been filled in.

In its current state the tanker is not yet glued to the underframe and the ladders are not yet glued in place. The plan is to paint/transfer the underframe, tanker and ladders separately, before a final assembly. The milk tanker tanker and the recently completed herring wagon will have a good wash this afternoon and head into the paint boxes. In terms of the paint boxes there are a number of wagons that are getting close to completion, with the SPV now ready for transfers and a lowfit wagon getting close to having the painting finished. So I have plenty of projects to keep me busy during the Christmas hols and hopefully I will be able to finish a couple of these projects.

O gauge Layout progress

So the layout has been set up all week and I have managed to make some progress with various tasks. I had already ordered the backscenes for the layout, which are a series of foamex boards onto which I will glue the backscene. Last weekend was spent cutting the foamex boards to size and adding in wooden struts to support them. These are all now cut in and yesterday I started gorilla gluing the foamex backscene boards down. The light blue colour is a thin protective film that pulls of the backscene. I have left most of this in place for the time being, as it will protect the surface whilst I undertake more detailing on the layout. Just adding the backscenes to the layout has started to transform the whole look of the baseboards.

The backscenes being fitted to the layout. This is a really big step towards completing the layout.

In the area around the tunnel I have started building up the elements of the scenery for an embankment, using some foam packing. The foam packing has been glued to the backscene/baseboard. One of todays tasks is to layer plaster bandage over the top of this. I will need to protect the tunnel using some low tac masking tape/paper before starting this job. 

The tunnel and embankment starting to take shape.

Yesterday I also visited my local model shop in Bideford (Osbournes Models) and picked up a grampus wagon kit to build, alongside a painted figurine of 'Vera'. Taking a snap of her against the tunnel made me realise just how big the O gauge tunnel is, using the figure for perspective. The tunnel is probably out of keeping with the scenery of the Withered Arm, but hey ho, it will do - I must confess I quite like its monumental proportions!

The monument tunnel heading towards the fiddle yard.

The other bit of detailing I have been doing is the quay front  water. I have built up the water using layers of PVA glue and I painted this a light yellow colour. The outcome is not to my liking and the water does not look deep. So the plan for today is to add a layer of AK Atlantic Blue water gel on top of this to see if it will provide some depth to the water. At full tide the water in the estuary certainly has a blue colour on a summers day, so I am hoping the blue water gel will provide a pleasing water front scene. The joins between the base boards are difficult to do with the water gel/pva glue, but fingers crossed I can make it look acceptable.

Current state of the quay front.

So a full day of modelling is planned and the layout will be able to stay up into next week, allowing me to make some further progress in the evenings. My hope is that I can get a lot of basic scenery elements done this week, before the layout comes down over xmas (there is not enough room). However, come the new year, I should be able to crack on with the detailing of the layout, whilst adding in some of the buildings.

O Gauge Pill Box Brake Van in Olive Green and the Layout set up again!

Having completed an awful lot of the house redecorating, I have finally had a decent amount of modelling time recently. I have been managing to paint fairly regularly on the weekends and the occasional work day, meaning that some of the wagons and locomotives in the paint boxes are slowly being finished off. The first wagon I have recently completed was the Parkside SR 25T Pill Box brake van in departmental olive green livery. I started building this wagon in Christmas 2014 and finished building it in 2021! The wagon is painted with Railmatch enamels and I used RailTec transfers. These were all sealed in with matt and satin varnish coats; the varnish coast were slightly rushed and consequently there are a couple of areas of the finish that niggle me. However, from normal viewing distance it looks fine and I am pleased to have started my engineers train in O gauge.

Finally finished the pill box brake van.

The other really pleasing thing, is that I have finally set up my O gauge layout again to continue the detailing. I had to put this away a little over a year ago, as we were starting some seriously house renovations and it was tucked into the corner of a room and covered with a dust sheets. Of course the dust got everywhere, but the dust sheets came off yesterday and I gave it a good hoover. I plugged it all in and I am delighted (and slightly relieved) it all worked fine. The layout runs all the way across the lounge, but working at a slight angle it all fits across the lounge. So after a good track clean, I can finally run some trains again. It was fantastic to see the class 25 and 03 pottering around the layout - the both sounded and looked great. The plan for today is to run some passenger stock to get a feel for the dimensions of the track plan and then get stuck into the layout scenery building. I have to build an embankment by the tunnel, alongside finishing the quay water area and then I will install the backscenes. There is also a new turntable fiddle yard to wire up and get working. So there will be plenty of glue and mess across the weekend - which sounds great to me!

Class 25 pottering around the layout by the quay wall.

Overview of the layout being set up (beer in hand of course!)

My first detailed O gauge locomotive rolls into the station!

I think the driver is keen to back to Exeter to clock off - class 25 leaving the quay side!

A new modelling room

Over the last couple of months I have had virtually no modelling time, as pretty much all of my time has been taken up between normal work (the 9-5) and redecorating the house. The house redecoration has been a long old project, with every room requiring a complete reworking. We are now 75% of the way through this process and one of the rooms I was allowed to undertake recently was my modelling room. Decorating the railway room next was a strategic move, getting train boxes out of rooms that would soon be coming up to being redecorated, whilst providing me with some space to actually undertake some modelling. The model railway room is the small box room in the house, but I am not complaining. There is enough room to have my DCC test track permanently set up and a desk, with my air brush also permanently set up. Having access to the air brush is a massive bonus, as I will be able to paint anytime I work from home. All the paint boxes with half finished models are stacked to the side of the desk and I can now start to work through these models (although I do need a new compressor).

Whilst splashing some paint on the walls of the spare room, I also took the liberty of ordering some bargain kitchen units and I topped these with some of the old worktop kicking around from the recent kitchen refit. These cupboards are the ideal storage space for all of my O gauge stock. This is a game changer for me, as my models have gone from being stored in plastic boxes that were stacked up in various rooms, to being completely accessible again in the modelling room.

The cabinets are used to store all the rolling stock. The DCC test track will fit over across the top of the two units.

The airbrush is now permanently set up and operational on my desk.

So I now have a fully functional railway room - this is a major step forward and I am delighted! The next jobs now are to get yet another baseboard kit built up, so I can fully setup the DCC test track. With this set up, track laying can be finished and the process of detailing this little layout can start. Alongside this, I can finally finish off some of these models that are half painted, whilst also getting some of the O gauge locomotives DCC sound installed and detailed. I am really looking forward to the next few weeks!

O Gauge Wagons - Herring and Milk tanker

So there has been a little more progress with wagon building over the last couple of weeks, with the Herring wagon now finished off. This is the 3D printed Skog kit and I raided a lot of bits from the spares box to finish this one off. It seems to have turned out OK although I am not sure if the endless filing has sorted out the 3D printed lines, the only real negative about the kit. It is heading to the paint shop now and I will wait for a coat of primer to see how it looks. However, I am currently decorating my new railway room, so it will be a few weeks before I can get the air brush up and running again.

The herring wagon is now ready for a wash and is heading to the paint boxes.

The other wagon kit that has seen some good progress is the Slaters GWR milt tanker. This is a lovely kit to build, although it has taken quite a bit of time to progress it this far. I am now heading towards the finishing stage with this kit and I need to work out how on earth I will paint it. I am guessing I will need to paint the tank and the body separately and then glue them together at the end. For now, I am going to finish getting it built, as I have spent far too much time thinking about how to paint it and not enough time actually building it.

GWR milk tanker slowly creeping towards completion.

Otherwise, modelling has been pretty slow recently, as the house decorating slowly grinds on. We are getting the hallways/landing finished in the next month and then that is that, for a at least 6 months. By November I should have a fully operational railway room, with the test track permanently set up on one side. I have ordered some cabinets to store all the O gauge stuff in and I will move my OO gauge finished models to the loft. Also in November I am finally going to erect my O gauge layout downstairs and try to remember where I had got to with it. Not least it will be brilliant to finally run some trains.