SR 25t brakevan, Grampus and VEA airbrake

Finally I have got around to doing some bits of modelling.  It is still snatches of time but the enthusiasm for modelling has certainly come back.  Life has involved less travelling recently - except for a pre-xmas Africa trip, although it is still quite transient.  However, although I am still not somewhere permanent and most of my modelling gear is still in storage, I have gotten around to building a few kits recently.  I have ordered myself a few kits over the last month or so, both 7mm and 4mm, and have been quietly building away in the evenings.

Grampus - ready for the paintshop

First up is the grampus wagon a 7mm Parkside kit - complete with wheels and couplings.  Great little kit and when all tidied up in the paintshop I think that this will look fine.  To go with the grampus I purchased a SR 25t brake van.  This is definitely a more fiddly construction and at the moment the body is not quite snug to the chassis - a product of me rushing a little in bad light to try to get the body built one evening.  As it stands it has had some filler added and some filling and filing should sort it out.  I should know better than to try to rush these things!  I intend to finish this one in bauxite and build another for an engineering olive paints scheme.

SR 25t Brakevan

Last up, I got back into the swing of some 00 gauge with a 4mm VEA air braked wagon.  This is currently having some new hand rails added and needs some buffers (any suggestions who does these?)  Anyhow it is going together smoothly and I plan to finish it in a late bauxite livery. I also have a 12t open wagon on the bench - and yes as you probably guessed it is to be finished in some form of grubby engineering livery!  A couple of BR spot vans and another VEA airbrake are waiting on the workbench too.  I plan to squirrel myself away on Sunday and watch the rugby whilst building some models - sounds like heaven!

VEA airbraked van nearing completion ready for painting.

I still do not have my painting gear set up.  This is going to have too wait a while until we buy our new house (an ongoing saga).  So until then I am lining up the wagons and hopefully that class 37 ready for the paintshop in a few months time.  I am also very tempted to buy an 0 gauge heljan class 33 in BR green (cheap and the only version left in the shops) and strip it down ready for painting into BR blue - that would definitely keep me occupied for a while.....I am going to need something to push these wagons around....