Lockdown (BR) Blues: A Hornby Passenger C Brake Van C

This week has seen more progress with clearing out the paint boxes and finishing off some languishing projects.  Over the course of the week I have managed to do a few hours of modelling each day.  This is great, as I have started finishing off some half built kits and also moving painting projects forwards.  I am pretty determined to use this time (lockdown) to finish off a lot of projects before spending money on any new models - I have boxes of unfinished kits/rtr stock!  Anyhow, recently I took apart a Hornby Passenger C Brake Van, in the BR blue livery.  After removing the glazing I weathered the van in two parts, the body shell plus roof and the underframe.  On this van I wanted to produce a much better effort of faded and chipped body work and I feel that I have got part way there again with this one - not perfect but it is heading in the right direction.

Finished Passenger C brake van, with some faded and chipped paintwork.

So after washing the wagon and underframe I applied an all over body wash of weathered black/frame dirt.  Most of this was wiped off, before spraying various shaded of faded BR blue of the planks.  I then sealed this up with a blast of satin varnish, before dabbing on some matt white and wiping away the excess with a cotton wool bud dipped in white spirit.  A bit more faded blue was sprayed over the top of this, before weathering with frame dirt, sleeper grime and weathered black.  The underframe was weathered with light rust, matt white, weathered black, frame dirt and sleeper grime.  Both parts of the van were then treated to three coats of satin varnish.  The glazing had a light mix of satin varnish and sleeper grime sprayed over them, before being glued back in place using 'glue n glaze' and the wagon reassembled. 

Side view of the finished van.

So another wagon finished for the parcels train (my goodness it is never ending!).  I might just have to purchase the Hornby LNER extra long CCT in BR blue - it looks a cracking model and I was not very happy with the one I made.....what was I saying about not buying anymore stuff.....

Stay safe everyone and stay safely locked down!

Another sealion wagon for the ballast train

Over the years I have been meaning to build a ballast train composed of some sealion, walrus and whale ballast wagons.  I am currently building another walrus (which will bring the total to 3) and one of the next kits will be another whale wagon - I was never entirely satisfied with the canopies on the first version I built.  Anyhow, I finally got around to finishing off the third sealion wagon I have.  This is the Bachmann model that I must have purchased about 10 years ago - it is frightening how time seems to just to slip away! 

Finished sealion wagon ready for the layout.

Anyhow, I converted this to 3 link  couplings, which involves a bit of filing and drilling into the buffer beam and cut off the mounts for the tension lock couplings.  I gave the wagon a good wash and then an all over body wash applied with a paint brush that was mostly wiped away again.  After this, various shades of light rust, weathered black, sleeper grime and frame dirt were airbrushed over the body.  This was all sealed off with a good blast of satin varnish.  I always treat the bogies separately to the body on a wagon like this, in an attempt to highlight some detail on the bogies.  Anyhow, another project finished off.  I must finish this second walrus wagon build and get the two completed kits into the paintshop for this rake.  Again apologies for the poor pictures - I am struggling to find decent light in the modelling room at the moment and with the layout firmly locked down and inaccessible with storage, this is the best I could manage.

A Royal Mail van and the parcels train

Over the last few years I have built a good number of parcels wagons, so it was high time I got around to finishing a few Royal Mail vans for the layout, to ship the parcels away!  So over the last week or so I put a little weathering over a Ford 400E Royal Van van.  A simple little project, which just required dismantling and then a bit of airbrushing.

Finished Royal Mail Ford 400E van.  At last something to get rid of these parcels! 

These models have a very good gloss finish on them, so I started with a bit of satin varnish, to give the paint something to adhere to.  Then it was a question of some light airbrushing, with a few different shades of grime.  Some varnish sealed it all up before reassembly.  A simple little project and now I have something to sit in the station car park ready to ship the parcels away.  I need a few more of these done for the layout, given the amount of parcels stock I now have!  Speaking of which, at the recent show in East Grinstead, I took a couple of pics of the Class 25 on the parcels train.  

Class 25 bringing the parcels and papers.  Barnstaple still had a very healthy parcels traffic into the 1980s.

The other end of the train, on the short parcels turn that day.

A 12T fruit van ready to roll

Week 3 of lockdown starts and I sincerely hope everyone is bearing up OK.  These are trying times and modelling is a good way of light relief to occupy some hours and take away the current stress.  Recently, I have managed to finish off the detailing of a few RTR wagons.  The Charlton layout already has far too much rolling stock, but doesn't everybodies layout?  So first up is a Bachmann 12T fruit van.  I need a series of 12T vans for the delivery of fertiliser to the provender store and currently have an operating rake of 3.  This will increase over the next couple of weeks as I finish off more wagons.

12T fruit van finished and ready to roll on the layout.

As per normal I fitted three link couplings to the wagon and then proceeded to give the wagon a good wash. First the wagon was treated to an all over bodywash of sleeper grime and weathered black heavily thinned, taking care to remove the majority of this wash after application.  The wagon was then detailed using an Iwata airbrush, applying Railmatch enamels.  Various shades of rust, weathered black, sleeper grime, frame dirt and white were applied to the underframe.  The body was predominately detailed with weathered black, on the upstanding ribs, door hinges, etc, and sleeper grime more generally across the body.  This was all sealed up with 3 coats of satin varnish.

I realised that I had far to many projects on the go at once in the painting boxes and it was taking far too long to finish anything.  Effort was being divided between multiple models, meaning nothing was getting finished. So over the next few weeks I am concentrating on a few specific models to get them finished off, before tackling some more complex projects, not least an earlish BR blue class 37, which the DCC sound decoder arrived for today.  At least, for once, I have plenty of time on my hands.