Departmental brake van and a GWR tunny

At last some modelling time!! This weekend I have finally had sometime to play trains and the first task has been to paint my class 25. This is coming along nicely and I hope will be ready for transfers next week. In between bouts of air brushing I have been building and converting some wagons.

Brake van with couplings converted, note the factory finished weathering

First up has been the coupling conversion of the Bachmann BR 20T brake van, now seconded into departmental stock. The model comes factory weathered and I must say I think it is pretty good. The roof weathering is a bit weak, but the body sides are pretty well done. The coupling conversion to 3 links couplings was a complete pig to do - in common with nearly all Bachmann wagons!! Once the holes were opened out a bit to accept the coupling hook, part of the underframe moulding had to be dremmelled away. Anyhow, it has all fitted back together pretty well and is ready to be washed and then have the weathered finish slightly upgraded!!

GWR tunny on on the work bench

The other project which I was working on yesterday was a Chivers Finelines GWR tunny wagons. I have built loads of Chivers kits and they are top quality. The build on this wagon will get finished this weekend and it will get washed with the brake van for spraying next week. I also have the sturgeon wagon sat on my desk and I also hope to progress this build today.

I have seen on the interweb that Bachmann are about to release a series of wagons as olive green departmental stock, such as the 13t and 16t mineral wagons and a PMV. These are all projects I have undertaken recently, building wagons kits and converting them into departmental stock!!! Hey ho, sods law I guess, although I think I probably prefer building the kits anyway.