Weathering and airbrushes - a class 37, 47 and 03

One of my first attempts at weathering, a dutch liveried class 37.

Santa has been very kind to me this year and I got a book I asked for that will help me with weathering and air brushing. I have had my air brush for a year now and it has been a fun learning curve. Maybe I should have read more to start with....and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I am enjoying the journey. However, the quality of the finish is increasing with greater experience...but some of the earlier attempts I am now less pleased with. I also got a new Bachmann weathered class 25 for xmas, and the comparison of this with some of my earlier attempts at weathering, I thought, would be interesting. This blog has always been about my attempts at modelling, which is something I enjoy, but do not take too seriously.


The body sides on the class 47 are much better, but the weathering on the solebars needs further attention

The class 37 was the first or second attempt at weathering a locomotive. At the time I was over the moon with the finish. Some time and distance gave a little bit of objectivity to viewing the end result and it was quickly taken back into the paintshop. The end results is ok. I like it because it is a first attempt. But the spray is too blotchy over the body - a product of a blocked air brush, something I did not notice at the time, due to inexperience.



The class 47 I originally painted by hand. I washed it off and reweathered the factory finished livery using the airbrush. The roof and the body sides I am pretty happy with. The solebars look awful and now that I notice them, they have to get a full strip and repaint next year. The class 03 I was and am happy with the end product. It is still not perfect, but it is better again than the last. More time was taken, more coats and a better ability to mix paints.


The weathering of the 03 is a much later project and I think the result i much better

Which brings me to the Bachmann class 25. The factory weathered finish is multi-tonal and is better than previous offerings. However, I still think it is a pretty unrealistic finish. I wanted to buy it to compare with the finishes I am producing, and also to use it as a basis of a more detailed weathering job. Do not get me wrong, I think it is great that Bachmann are trying to produce more detailed weathered finishes. But given the comparison, I am going to stick with producing my own finishes. Nothing beats individuality and I am going down the path of buying cheaper locomotives (bargains!!) with the aim of detailing and weathering them. It seems less worrying to have a bash at a bargain, rather than a more expensive model!!


A Bachmann class 25 with a weathered factory finish......

I have a lot of good projects on the go at the moment, not least a 33/2 about to enter the paintshop, and a class 45. I intend to mess both of these up quite heavily. I hope to have some further results to show on this blog soon.

Merry Xmas

Hello one and all,

Wishing everyone a merry christmas and a happpy new year

Tunny nearing completion

The last week has been manic. Finishing off work for the xmas break, having to do the xmas shopping, and of course plenty of festive socialising has seen modelling placed well and truly of the back burner. However, work is now finished and I am hoping that tomorrow will see the end of the xmas shopping. I am planning a trip to Taw Valley Models to pick up some bits and bobs early in the morning. And then I plan to crack on with some modelling.


The partly painted tunny

One little project which received a little attention tonight was the tunny wagon. This is the chivers finelines kit, and is now largely painted. It is going to get a coast varnish to seal it, but then I need to wait for some transfers......it is so frustrating that getting transfers is such an issue at the moment. I can only hope that modelmaster decals final sort out their supply issues soon.


Just waiting for the transfers.......

The painting of the wagon was with lifecolour acrylics. It must have taken at least 10 coats of various colours to get the wagon to this stage. I intend to weather over the top of the transfers, so there will be a lot more grime to add this yet. I subsequently decided to buy another 3 of these wagons, one southern and two GWR types, for my rapidly growing engineering stock department. However, it seems that getting hold of the chivers finelines wagons is now just about impossible as well. This is really annoying as the chivers kits are excellent and I sincerely hope they will be available again soon. In the meantime I am scouring e-bay.

On other fronts and on a more positive note, the lighting kit turned up for the class 121 today from Express models. This project I now hope to finish over the xmas break..... fingers crossed

Pottington Quay warehouse finished..

The finished warehouse on Pottington Quay, in its final location

This week and weekend I had plans of getting the track laid on Pottington Quay and the backsecene sprayed. Events have transpired and I am now stuck in the office writing up reports, all over the weekend. Luckily I enjoy my job, so it is not too much of a chore, but it does mean that I I am not going to get Pottington Quay operational by xmas, which was my plan.


The class 33/2 emerges from behind the warehouse

However, I did manage to finish the warehouse for Pottington Quay this week. This is my first attempt at scratch building anything. Stupidly, I have decided to plonk the building right at the front of the layout, as a scenic break for the trains entering/leaving the shunting micro. This means the building is up close to the edge of the layout and very visible. As a first scratch building attempt, it has turned out ok, but not perfect. However, it is all a learning curve, and I am sure I can blend the less than ideal bits in with some strategically placed scenic items!


I hope the scale appears about right....

Whilst I had the warehouse on the layout to see what it would look like in place, I also got out a class 33/2, which was about to get dismantled ready for detailing and weathering. The 33 was placed next to the warehouse on the track, to see if the scale was about right. When I built the warehouse I guessed all the dimensions, with an ethos of 'I think it looks about right'. I think the relative scales work, although they are obviously none exact.

So there it is, my first finished building for Pottington, and a unique one at that, a first for me! Over the xmas break I am going to get some modelling clay, to have a second attempt at scratch building something with my son, maybe a second building for Pottington Quay. Until then I have the 33/2 in pieces on my work bench, with the sideframes/bufferbeams/interior cabs, etc, all removed, and the same for a class 121 and class 25. So I have plenty to be getting on with and its only a week till xmas.....

A Trout in North Devon

Weathered Trout, on Amberleigh

Another engineering wagon goes through the paintshop. This is the new olive trout from Hornby. This is a great wagon, with lovely moulded detail and bang in the range of mid 1970s - 1980s that I am interested in. Although I believe from the review in Model Rail they a bit eastern dominated in their distribution, I am having a small number of these to potter around my imaginary North Devon layout.



The wagon was weathered with Lifecolour acrylics and some Tenscrom Lifecolour rust. Various shades of rust, weathered black, sleeper grime and frame dirt where sprayed over the hopper body and underframe. Overall, I am pretty happy with how this one turned out, and also a quick little project to boot. Think I am going to get another one asap!! The next trout is going to get a super heavy rust finish to mimic a wagon right at the end of its working life.


The warship creeps into shot on Amberleigh, with the finished trout on the layout

I also picked up a DCC fitted Warship in rail blue at the weekend. Given the shortage of 21 pin decoders around at the moment, this was great to get a locomotive ready to use on Amberleigh with a decoder pre-fitted. The warship, the class 33/2 and the class 45 are projects I really want to get moving, although the class 121 continues to make progress. My son and I have also managed some landscaping on Pottington Quay and I have almost finished the warehouse for the front of the layout. Nearly, because this evening I painted one of the doors which was covered in hair and dust (how did this happpen??). So this needs to be sanded off and repainted tomorrow night. Hopefully Pottington Quay will have the track laid and wired up the week after next, so there might be some serious progress on Pottington Quay before xmas.

A cambrian whale wagon

I have been trying to regain some impetus on some of my stalled modelling projects recently. The biggest cause for stagnation on these projects is the lack of suitable decals from model master. However, I am led to believe that December will see an end to the supply issue of these transfers, so with this in mind, I picked up my partially completed whale wagon at the weekend.


Whale wagon nearing completion

Having time away from a project is no bad thing. A little distance will often give a little more objectivity. On picking up the whale the first thing I wanted to get rid of was the the canopies on the platforms - the original ones I had made looked pretty rubbish!! With this is mind I had purchased some A1 models mesh guards.


The canopy detail, with the metal handwheels making a substantial difference to the appearance of the wagon

Admittedly on Sunday morning I had a pretty bad hangover, but the replacing of the canopies took all day. The A1 models canopies are the wrong shape, having square struts, rather than round ones. So in the end I bent some new struts from 0.45mm wire and glued the mesh from the A1 canopies on the bent wire, after cutting off the square supports. There was quite a lot of swearing whilst doing this - a combination of a fiddly task and a bad headache!



The updated canopies are much better. After I had completed this I noticed some imperfections on the moulding of the body sides, so this was sanded off, before handwheels (Nainshire Modelling supplies), and the rest of the underframe details were added. The whale was given another good wash in the sink and is now waiting to be have its paint job finished.


The large white mark on the wagon was a moulding imperfection I have only just noticed which required sanding down.

I think I am improving on each of these large hopper wagons I build. The first walrus was not so good, the second was much better, and this is an improvement again. I have another whale and walrus in the kit box and the construction of these is imminent. Hopefully, it won't be too long until I finish one of these wagons that I am totally happy with....!

A little warehouse painting

I have managed to get a little further with the warehouse for Pottington Quay. The progress has revolved around painting, and it has been a little bit of a learning curve. First of all I painted the building sides in a bath stone type colour, a light orange/yellow/brown. The local slate and shale is a yellow/orange/grey, so it is a reasonable approximation.


Photo 1: The body of the warehouse was painted in an orange/brown yellow mix and then weathered with washes of acrylic white and black.

After this is ran a diluted acrylic wash of white, then black over the stone work. The result of this is photo 1. The overall effect was a little too dark for me. So I dipped several cotton wool buds into a water based air brush cleaning solution and rubbed the building sides down, paying particular attention to where water would run down the building sides, such as off window lintels, etc. This is shown in photos 2 and 3.


Photo 2: To lighten the overall effect, I washed away some of the black paint with air brush cleaner on a cotton wool bud

The effect is better, but not quite perfect, but then again neither is the building construction!! I still have to paint the window lintels, guttering,doors and window frames, and then attempt to blend these elements in. However, it is getting there and it is a great learning experience. It should get finished this week......

But right now I am about to get distracted by setting up my test track Amberleigh and playing with the class 25/3 DCC sound bachmann locomotive that has been long awaited but has recently arrived....


Photo 3: Note the cleaner area beneath the window lintels to mimic water run off

A warehouse, a trout and a 121

I have returned to Devon at long last, and thank goodness for that. Working away from home can be fun, but I definitely get homesick if I am away for too long. Getting home has meant that I have progressed a little on a couple of projects.


First coats of paint on the Pottington Quay warehouse

The warehouse for Potting Quay has advanced a little bit, with some coats of paint applied. This is by no means finished, but is starting to resemble a passable representation of a dockside warehouse. The stones have been given a base-coat of yellow/brown, and the roof slates a dark grey. There are a few (many!!) imperfections noted on the body work, so a bit of selective filing and the like is required to finish off the body. However, it is starting to shape up. It is by no means perfect, but I am enjoying the process of making it.

On the theme of Pottington Quay, after seeing a great video of a blue warship hauling about 6 mk1s over the north Devon railway to Ilfracombe in 1970, I have decided that the upcoming Pottington Quay has to have a through running single branchline. I know I change my mind everyday, but Pottington is set between Barnstaple Town and Braunton, so I can imagine that the line was preserved. The other consequence of this is a warship has been added to my shopping list for the layout!!

All the projects I have on the go at the moment are slightly longer term and require more time than I can currently spend on playing trains. As a consequence I decided I need a quick project, one I could finish in a day or two, or certainly within a week. So I have taken the couplings off the departmental trout wagon I recently purchased and added some 3 link couplings. In common with most rolling stock now adays, this simple coupling conversion is quite a hassle, having to remove a considerable amount of plastic from the underframe, including the plastic housing for the screw that holds the tension lock coupler in place.


Trout ready for weathering

After removing a few of the screws I considered taking the trout wagon apart. Having the hopper separated from the body would certainly aid painting, but it seemed something of a riddle and I felt certain I would damage it, if I tried. So for simplicities sake I left the wagon whole and went about cutting away the parts of the plastic underframe, to accommodate a 3 link coupling. I also scuffed up the finish on the hopper using a fibre glass pencil, to promote some uneven colouring on the body. It is subtle, but it is visible. The wagon is is now ready for washing and then weathering. I hope to finish this off with a couple of evenings modelling next week.

The other project I made a little headway on is my class 121 detailing. Some of the front detail was added and the chassis was completely separated from the motor unit. When all the detail is added I will weather the chassis and bogies before installing working lights into the DMU body. I might go for the express models kit for this, although I currently have a blackcat kit for the DMU lighting. My aim is to get this and the class 119 in service by xmas, but that is less than a month away, so we shall see....


Detailing on the class 121

Beeching cuts and some video of Barnstaple to Ilfracombe

I have had to spend the week in York again. This has meant very little time for anything other than work, except for the odd hour here and there. Whilst I have achieved no modelling, I have spent some time doing some internet research/reading, primarily on the Beeching cuts. I was born after the cuts, but I have had to live with the consequences of them, especially in North Devon, where the extent of the cuts can only be described as savage. I used to have to drive for 6 miles to catch the train to Exeter for work each day, whereas the old railway station was c. 300m from my house!! And I live a lot closer than most in Devon to a railway station.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and each generation has its own ideas. However, in my view the railway cuts of the 1960's can now be seen to be shortsighted, unstrategic and in many ways now hinders the re-expansion of the network. In the 1960s cars were seen as the answer, and environmental factors such as particulate pollution, noise pollution, social well being, economic decline of severed communities, carbon dioxide emissions, traffic congestion and population growth were not even considered in the economies of the time. And in the case of Devon I wonder whether towns like Bideford and Torrington will ever see rail services again, I hope so.

Anyway, whilst trailing through the internet I found several cracking videos of the North Devon line. My favourite shows a rake of mk1s behind a warship travelling through Barnstaple Junction, Barnstaple Town, Braunton and ending in Ilfracombe, just a couple of days before the line closed for good. The fact the 'branchline' had about 5 mk1s and clearly plenty of passengers, shows the fool-hardiness of closing the line. I guess this line will never be reinstated now, due to having cross the River Taw at Barnstaple, and also the selling of some of the land at Barnstaple Town station and Braunton, and the Ilfracombe station site. Now one can imagine the line to be a key development route in the southwest, and a real tourist attraction, if only it still existed. Anyway, that is not the case, but of course in modelling terms it still exists in my imagination!!

Hopefully I will be back to some normal modelling later this week, - I am looking forward to getting home. Until then please have a look at the videos if you have any interest in the railways of Devon, they are well worth a watch .

http://youtu.be/djcVdpr7Vx8
http://youtu.be/3V_FMj66b1k
http://youtu.be/RW-Nkjrjo_c

Another building for Pottington quay

A second simple building for Pottington Quay

Another quick update, which again highlights an almost complete lack of modelling at the moment. Another week was spent working long days away from home and this left very little spare time each evening. I am also returning to York this week, so again there will be little time for any modelling. This is the joy of several work projects starting close together, leaving no time for a life outside of work. However, I am hoping that when pay day arrives I might be able to afford a couple of new sound locos for Pottington Quay...


The model is going to being finished in a semi-derelict state

A little project that did receive some attention was a little semi-industrial farm out building. This is my second scratchbuilt structure for Pottington Quay. Whilst this is not a difficult structure to make, it is better than my first attempt at the warehouse, currently in the paintshop. I have certainly got the bug for constructing original buildings, although my skills are not quite there yet!! I am going to try a fibre board/DAS modelling clay building soon and also build derelict farm house to go with the outbuilding I have just made.

One of the benefits/time wasting activities with working away from home is doing a little bit of research on the internet on modelling, etc. One of the things I want to improve on Pottington Quay is my track soldering. Scanning around the internet has revealed numerous videos, some of which to be frank are speaking utter twaddle. I am no expert modeller, but it made me realise that the internet whilst being a wealth of data, it can also be misleading.....

The other thing that has caught my eye this week is a Branor truck cam. This has gone straight on the top of my current shopping list. I have been looking for a product like this for a while and think this is a great idea. Amongst other things I am also planning to installl a small camera into the layout to real time record video and hook directly to a laptop, which will be placed to the side of the layout. But before I get too far ahead of myself, I need to get the buildings constructed and the track laid, which will be a couple of weeks at least until I get home again.

Tunny wagon

I have spent most of the week away in York, very enjoyable, but no further progress on Pottington Quay. I am waiting for the next 4 weeks to pass, until I can really get stuck into the building of the micro layout. Until then I am contenting myself with the odd bit of kit building or scratch building.


Tunny ready for the paintshop

I have recently finished building a Chivers Finelines Tunny. This is the SR version and is a gem of kit. It is very straight forward to build and looks great. It is another wagon to be added to my growing list of engineering stock. I have some more tunny wagons, lampreys, a crab and a grampus to build, many before xmas. However, I am still waiting on the transfers for the kit, the same as for the crab, the lamprey and the whale. Modelmaster decals have apparently had all sorts of supply issues. I can only hope these issues are resolved soon - it is really frustrating to have lots of part finished engineering wagons. However, I am coming to the conclusion that the ideal layout for me will have to be an engineering depot!!



The other little task I have made some limited progress on is another building to add to Pottington Quay. I am hoping it will look like a kind of derelict old farm building converted to some semi-industrial use. We shall see, if I make any progress on the building this week I shall put up a few pictures.

Engineering PMV and CCT wagons

The CCT (furthest away) and PMV (closest) left at Amberleigh Halt, on what appears to be fine summers evening sunset (or just bad lighting!!!)

This week has seen much progress on the wagon front, not least the finishing of two models, the southern CCT and southern PMV, modelled in 1970/1980s departmental liveries. Although enjoyable projects, both of these wagons had flaws from my limited modelling - I have always maintained this a blog about my experiences of modelling - and these two wagons fit that bill perfectly!


The finished PMV, I am still not happy with the glazing though

On each of the wagons I had niggles with the finishes. On the CCT QPV staff Tool wagon I was less that impressed with my finish on the transfers. With the PMV I really messed up the glazing! So on both wagons I was 90% happy but that 10% really niggled me.


An attempt to rescue to the original glazing effort, using glue and glaze. A good lesson that if you rush things, it will show up

With the PMV I put a layer of glue and glaze over the windows and let this set before weathering the wagon. This did a lot to disguise the poor first attempt at glazing. This wagon was always destined for a heavily weathered finish, so these two factors I was hoping would make for an acceptable finish. The photographs show whether this has succeeded; the glazing is certainly better, but not perfect. I am now 95% happy, although there are still niggles with the PMV, such as a wonky hand rail, etc! I think that it is one of those projects I will live with, until I get around to replacing it - which will probably be in a decade or so!!


The heavier weather finish on the PMV

With the CCT I really only wanted to disguise the poor finish on the transfers using some subtle weathering. This I hope has been achieved. The CCT (now a QPV tool wagon) I was always happier with. I think that the weathering job has succeeded in blending in these transfer elements, so this one can stay!!


The CCT with the lighter weathered finish

Recently I took down my DCC test track (Amberleigh) and put this into storage. I realised that this is a bad idea - as I now have nowhere set up to photograph finished/developing models. So I balanced Amberleigh up on some trestles to take these photographs last night and held a lamp in one hand and the camera in the other. Needless to say it was all a bit make shift and as the result the photographs are pretty rubbish! Hopefully, Pottington Quay will have some scenic elements added before too much longer and this will then be used to take better photographs.


Departmental QQV tool wagon

On other modelling projects some progress has been made on my Class 121 DMU, with buffers added and underframe detailing started. I also finished my first tunny wagon, another wagon for my growing engineering fleet. However, I am now away with work for about three weeks or so, so updates will be sporadic at best.

Pottington Quay - a little more progress

View from one end of the layout to the other

A good weekend of modelling transpired. Great to have sometime at home and be able to just chill out and enjoy doing some modelling. The two projects that received the attention this weekend were Pottington Quay and the finishing/weathering of my PMV and CCT in engineering olive. The second of these I will post later in the week. Needless to say some progress was made on Pottington Quay.

As always my expectations of what I might achieve were completely over the top. The first task was picking up the Bachman Scenecraft Service Shed. This is an excellent model and after it was duly place on the shunting micro I realised that one of the sidings had to go. So another track plan was required.


A further rejigging of the track plan - this is the final version

The revised plan now has one siding, one line in and one line out. This effectively lost a set of points, reducing the overall number to 3. Whilst collecting the servicing shed I decided to buy a point motor. My original plan was not to bother installing point motors to save money. However, some automatic points seemed appealing, with a more automated layout in general. The gaugemaster point motor looks easy enough to install. But I do not understand if I require a capacitor discharge unit for every point, or can I wire all 3 points to the same unit?? If anyone knows the answer some advice would be appreciated, so please comment!!


My first attempt at scratch building - a warehouse to sit on the quay front

Anyway, in between jiggling track plans and contemplating track wiring, I was busy with the air brush weathering the PMV and CCT. And whilst each coat of paint dried on these wagons I was attempting to scratchbuild a passable representation of the Rolle Quay warehouse. I managed to finish this on the Sunday and tonight it might well get a good wash and does of primer. Has it been successful? The answer to this is I am currently unsure. I think it probably looks ok at the moment, but with some paint added it will show up all the minor blemishes.... we shall wait to see.


The entrance for the second track will be disguised by a signal box - yet to be constructed

Anyway, it is a first attempt, another step into a bigger world of modelling. It also fulfils its function of disguising the entry/exit points for the tracks into the micro. I now am about to start building a signal box and platform to stand behind the warehouse, another task for this week.

Pottington Quay, further progress

The finished Ambeleigh test track, all it needs now is a name board, another task for the weekend

Being home all week has meant that I have made further progress on Pottington Quay. I took the step of finally taking down Amberleigh, my test track layout, which has been running in the spare room for probably around 8 months now, as I needed to borrow one of the trestles for Pottington Quay. Amberleigh is now finished, with the exception of the addition of a name board for the Halt. It has been a great little project, but has now reached the end of its developmental interest for me. Hopefully, one thing left to accomplish with the layout is taking it to an exhibition, but for that I will have to wait for an offer......


Plan view, excuse the feet!

With regards to Pottington Quay, I started to build two structures this week. The first was a scalescenes card kit. These kits are excellent, but my ability to build them is not!!! It ended up in the recycling bin after one night I am afraid!! However, I did go out and take some photos of the warehouse at Rolle Quay and have started scratch building this structure. The dimensions are guestimates, based on the photographs, with the aim of producing a representation of the building. Whether it will look to scale once finished I am unsure!


Rolle Quay from the road side

I have used a plasticard base with stone cladding. This is my first attempt at scratch building, and I am learning all the way. It is starting to shape up, but I do not want to tempt fate yet, there is a long way to go. Regardless of this, I am really enjoying constructing something unique. I am definitely getting bitten by the building bug and now intend to scratch build a larger warehouse for the rear of the layout, possibly using modelling clay.


and my first attempt at a representation of the building

I have managed to gather the materials together for most of the rest of the buildings for the layout. I have the stuff to construct the quay side, the track plan needs gluing down and the powerbus needs installing and then the whole thing needs wiring up. Add to this a small signal box to build, combined with spraying the backscene, and the weekend looks a busy one in modelling terms. I am also hoping to finish of my engineers olive green CCT and PMV and build that warehouse. We shall see how far I get, but I will update to show all (any!)progress.


The warehouse from the river view

Pottington Quay - it's all in name

Pottington Quay, with the backscene now in place

At last a name has been decided upon for the shunting micro. Introducing Pottington Quay, based loosely on the quay front wall at Barnstaple. As the photos hopefully show I have made a little more progress, with the backscene now in place. The backscene is glued fibre board on a curve made from two sections of wood, meeting in the middle. The back scene is also relatively high, something I hope will give the layout some atmosphere. This is going to be sprayed white to grey, making it a very bland back drop.


View looking into the layout

The back drop is going to be bland because I intend to cover the back of the layout with some tall buildings and some trees. The centre piece of the layout will be a wagon repair works - using the Bachmann scenecraft single road locomotive repair shed. A trip down to the excellent model railway shop in Exeter promptly had this ordered, so am waiting on this to fix in place.

I also am going to (attempt) to scratch build my first building, being a warehouse to plonk right at the front of the layout, to disguise the entry/exit of trains. There is a lovely old warehouse in Barnstaple on the rolle quay, just a few mins walk from my office, which I am going to photograph today ready to attempt to scratch build. I picked up some sheets of plasticard and the like at the weekend and am ready to start....fingers crossed it won't be a complete disaster.


Slightly higher view showing the track layout

However, I am also going to purchase a few more warehouse type structures from the Scenecraft/Skaledale ranges to fix to the back of the layout. These are going to be placed on a slightly raised section, providing a nice back drop to the sidings, along with some decent foliage. I also need a signal box to place behind the warehouse on the quay, to act as a scenic break for the second track entry onto the layout. Tonight I am hoping to get the powerbus in place and start gluing down the track, hopefully some more progress updates to follow later in the week.

Back home at last - some movement on the shunting micro

Got a call to head up north, well to the midlands anyway, and headed off for two weeks of survey. Although the work was good it meant that I was away from all things modelling, including my shunting micro layout, for two weeks. Before I left home my son and I messed around with the track plan. He had the idea to change it slightly, with a second track coming into the depot. This is now going to run to a small diesel fueling point, to allow dmus and locos to shunt on and off the layout. I think this should be a fun little project, with lots of shunting interest. I am trying to work out whether all the points I have are electrofrog or not.....


Modified track plan for the shunting layout

The second photograph shows a new Hornby trout wagon on the layout to give an indication of the relief (the wagon is an absolute belter btw). The lower level is going to be an inter-tidal zone. The quayside was orignally going to be modelled with a wooden front. However, I ordered the Faller kit for a quay front today, which models the front as iron girders. I have also ordered some ready to plant buildings to place around the micro layout. One of the tasks I hope to achieve this weekend is to get to B&Q to get some bendy MDF to fit the backscene. Then I can start playing around with the position of the buildings and get the track wired up. If we make some progress over the weekend I will put up the post or two....and we also need to come up with a name....


The relief for the quay side at the front of the layout

PMV and CCT progress

The nearly finished PMV, with a few issues to be resolved...

I have made a little progress on my PMV wagon this week, painting the handrails and adding some transfers. Alas, sometime off in the week did not materialise, so I did not quite get around to finishing this project. I got out the CCT I had recently finished to compare it with the PMV. After not having seen the CCT for a while, I was slightly disappointed with its appearance, especially the varnish around the transfers.


The CCT in departmental livery

Both of these wagons are finished in departmental olive green and are intended to convey parts/tools to the wagon repair facility I am about to build as a micro layout! How prototypical this is I do not know, it really is just a little bit of fun!

The PMV also has had a very poor glazing job, with some glue and glaze blobs clearly visible on some scratched windows. In addition, the roof is a smidgen too short one one end, I might be being a little picky, but these little details really make a difference too me. So all in all I am not too happy with how either of these wagons have turned out!


The CCT. I find the transfer/varnish finish less than perfect on this. I intend to gently weather over the top of it.

So to the remedies. The CCT is going to have a light weathering of frame dirt and general dirt around the underframe and lower body, to blend in the varnish finish. The PMV is intended to be finished in a heavily weathered state. So I am going to add a layer of glue and glaze to the windows,before giving the whole wagon a heavy weathering, including windows.


The poor glazing job on the PMV. A good lesson in trying not rush modelling when tired/when you other half is nagging you to do something else!

I hope these improvements will alleviate the little niggles I have with these wagons. We shall see. However, I have to go away with work now for about 10 days, so it will be a while before I can get going on this wagons again. As a consequence my next update will be a couple of weeks away - see you then.