Looking good on the Dance Hall (!) - Finished Dance Hall Brake Van

Another wagon has rolled out of the wagon works this week, this time a Cambrian Dance Hall Brake Van.  This is been another long running saga of a build.  I started building this kit in 2015!  So a mere 4 years later it is finished.  The build for this wagon was not necessarily difficult but it was slightly awkward.  The original roof for the kit was an awful fit and an email to Cambrian models delivered a remodelled roof (excellent service by Cambrian).  The replacement roof was a better fit, although still not perfect!

Finished Dance Hall Brake Van.

And from the other side.

The end product of building this kit was not great, especially the long hand rails running down the length of the wagon.  However, I am pretty chuffed with the overall paint job.  A good paint job will hide a multitude of building sins, whilst a well built wagon can look awful with a bad a paint job.  The wagon is in the engineers fleet, finished in olive green with a a good smattering of sleeper grime over this, all sealed up with a satin varnish.  Transfers are a mix of Railmatch decals - what ever I could find that looked 'right'.  I like the depot name (Exeter) and the 'Southern Region' transfers on this, although the transfer application could have been slightly better in places.

One of the ends of the Dance Hall.

So another wagon finished for Charlton.  I am tempted to build another, now that I have finished off this one.  I think a second attempt might go a bit better.....but whether I will ever get around to it is another question.  I could only find one picture of this wagon being built, with the original roof in place and metal buffers visible.

The brake van part built.

I still have not got around to setting up the layout to finish this off, although I have started a bit of detailing and building for some various parts of the layout (fence post, trees, etc).  In the next few weeks the layout will be set up and the final touches hopefully added.  Until then (I need a clear weekend to do this) I am building some wagon kits in the evenings.  Recently finished is a LNER CCT, the last for the parcels train (at least for now!!).  This will be finished off with an SPV that is now in the paint boxes.  A lamprey and crab are currently being built and I hope to start a 15t southern brake van soon, to add a little variety to the brake van fleet.

Built LNER CCT ready for a good wash before painting.