Ratio LMS 13t open wagon

This week I managed to finish off the painting on a LMS13t open wagon, now in use on BR.  The wagon has been finished with a light weathering, in a faded olive green livery.  As per normal it is painted with an airbrush and transfers are from the Modelmaster range.  I started building this wagon in 2016 and the box has been long lost.  There may have been set a of transfers which came with the wagon, but these are also long lost, so I mixed and matched from various Modelmaster packs.  So another wagon ready for the layout, although it has taken nearly two years!!  The floor in the wagon is not so good, due to the two halves of the kit joining the floor in the centre of the wagon.  This is how the kit is designed and if I had thought about it when I was building it, I would have added a false floor, but alas too late now.  However, it is not so visible at a distance and I will place some spent ballast in here when it is running on the layout to disguise this. 

Finished wagon, with an attempt at a faded olive green livery.

This photo shows the subtle underframe weathering up well.

The join in the floor is just about visible in this shot.

The layout (Charlton) progress is quite slow at the moment, whilst I paint the station building.  This is coming along nicely and hopefully I will post an update of this later this week, when it is ready to place on the layout.  Once it is stuck down, along with the other buildings, I will make a start on ballasting.

A Dogfish caught at Charlton Station

A small project that was finally finished off this week was the repainting of a Heljan dogfish wagon.  The model has the original couplings cut off and was then subjected to a bath of Superstrip to remove the original dutch finish. Three link couplings were duly added before painting in a fairly non descript grey, with rust seeping through, and a fair whack of frame dirt.  As per normal all painting was carried out with my airbrush and transfers are from the Modelmaster range.

Finished Dogfish

I started this project about 1 year ago and it is good to see it finally finished.  It is amazing how time flies!  My airbrush sat dormant over the festive period but I am now making a concerted effort to finish off some projects that have been languishing in the painting boxes.  I have also nearly finished the platforms for the Charlon micro-layout and I need to free up the space to paint these. Anyhow, another wagon added to my ever growing stock of kit built engineering wagons!

Western relegated to engineers workings!

The short consist, with recently finished open wagons

Closer view of the Dogfish

A short video of the Dogfish in the short engineers train, heading back to Exeter, with a Western in charge!

Charlton Micro layout - Station Progress 1

I have spent a few evenings over the last few weeks building the station for Charlton.  It is not finished yet and I have run out of fencing so progress has been halted. So in the mean time I placed the station on the layout to see how it looked space wise and how it would accommodate a short train, etc.  I must say that I am really pleased with its overall dimensions.  It can hold a two coach train and allow the locomotive to run around it, or a shorter working.  Just playing around with the buildings gave a sense of how the layout would look.  Given the boards are only 1ft wide, it is all a tight squeeze and will require a little imagination to blend the backsenes with the rest of the layout.  I particularly like the view from the between the provender store and warehouse, placing the camera on the area of clay which will be some cobbles in due course.  So it is starting to come together nicely.

View of the station from just beside the provender store.

View from between the provender store and warehouse on the cobbles.

Western pulling in a short passenger train with parcels.

Overall view of the layout with a class 37 sitting in the siding off the run around loop.

 

A class 25 with a 3 coach train.  This number of coaches blocks the run around loop, so it will need another locomotive to haul this train out.

View looking down the station, still under construction!

Anyhow I gave the layout a small running session with my recently completed Western (with DCC sound) as it hauled in a (very!) short passenger service with some parcels wagons.  I am pretty satisfied with how this is shaping up at the moment.  Todays big job is to get the point motors finished off (I started this yesterday evening) and give the back scene another coat of paint.  

One of the great things about this small layout is the feeling of progress and ability to not get bogged down by the project.  The fiddle yard with have a maximum of four storage lanes and it will more likely be three. Therefore, I am going to go with a very small fleet of locomotives and they will all be sound fitted, with all coaches having lighting etc.  I currently have a class 122 sound chip to fit as well as class 22 to detail and the sound chip on the class 25 needs re-blowing. Plenty to keep me occupied!  Oh and I might have just purchased a second hand warship to detail and repaint......

An ebay bargain, a very run down warship to bring back to life!  Luckily it runs fine. Does anybody know where I can find a spare detailing pack for this??.....

SPV Parcel Van and the 22t tube wagon

A happy new year to everyone.

I had big plans for modelling over xmas, but of course, I did not achieve half of what I wanted to.  I did have a lovely xmas break though!  Anyhow, one further item of rolling stock has been finished, another SPV parcels wagon.  This is 2 of three that I have to finish.  I used the Railtec transfers on this and they went on perfectly!  Another one of the ever growing fleet of parcels stock for use on my layouts.  One more to go!

Another finished parcels wagon!  Just how much mail does North Devon need!

In much better natural sunlight I also managed to take a photograph of the 22t tube wagon I finished a little while back.  The wagon has replacement planks painted on and these are visible in the better light.

A better photo of the 22t tube wagon.

Tasks for today are to build the station for the Charlton micro layout and paint the backscene - more updates to follow on this.  The micro layout is slowly coming to life....