Engineering wagon progress

Well have finally got sometime to myself at the moment - working close to home means I can do some modelling in the evenings. To this end I have picked up some of the projects that had been lying around unfinished. Recently I have built a couple of 13t open wagons (diags 1/019 and 1/47) for use on spoil trains on my layouts. Both are parkside kits and went together easily. The diag 1/047 when painted had a slight gap at the body edges - a product of bad assembly by me!! This necessiatated filling half way through the painting process and then sanding off with wet and dry paper before rewashing. The photograph shows the wagon after sanding and washing and prior to repainting. The building of the second 13t wagon (diag 1/019) was finished tonight and this is now ready for a wash and painting.

13t wagon now being incorporated into the engineering fleet.

Second 13t wagon waiting for the paintshop

The ends of the body are being repainted after a small gap was noticed...

The dogfish wagon is a Heljan model, taken apart, super-stripped and repainted in weathered black with rust. I have just about finished spraying the hopper but the underframe requires a lot more work. Hopefully I will get the transfers on this wagon over the weekend. I think that with just a few little tweaks these wagons can look pretty good - they just need some attention/weathering to bring out the best in the detail.

Heljan dogfish in the process of being repainted

On other wagon projects the whale and tunny wagons have both just sat in my painting box waiting for Modelmaster to announce that the transfer packs are ready for these wagons......both wagons are ready for the varnish coat before transfers. Let's hope that this month Modelmaster finally manage to get the transfers produced and I can finally finish off these two wagons!!! I think both have been waiting for about a year now - doesn't time go quickly??...

Tunny still waiting on transfers

And a whale ready for transfers

Lastly, one of my first attempts at weathering with an airbrush is coming back into the paintshop for some serious reworking. Whilst at the time I was delighted with the finish, I now think I can do a bit better. Following on from a Model Rail article I ordered some Modelmates weathering dyes and have started re-weathering the wagon with these. Hopefully, a finished update will appear soon on this wagon....

Fertiliser wagon before reweathering- an early attempt

On a different note, my son and I travelled to Taw Valley Models in Chulmleigh on Saturday, one of our local model shops. When we arrived we found the shop had closed down - presumably a consequence of the recession. All I can say is what a pity, it was a great shop with a friendly atmosphere and will be missed by us and I am sure many others.