A big fish: Sturgeon wagon finished (finally)

This week I managed to find a couple of spare evenings for finishing off the sturgeon wagon.  The wagon is built from the Cambrian kit and I started building it some time in 2016.  Since then, it has sat around in various boxes awaiting painting and I am delighted it is now finally finished.  I put the primer on this wagon about 8 months ago (I think) and have slowly been painting it over the last few months.

Finished sturgeon wagon in Charlton station.

View from the other side.

The wagon was built as per the instructions and painted using an airbrush with Railmatch enamels.  Transfers come from the CCT range, with a few additions from Modelmaster, such as the data panel. Overall, I am delighted with this wagon.  It looks the part and was certainly worth the effort.  There are a few areas where I think the finish could have been better, but I overall I think it looks pretty good.  I currently have another Sturgeon to build, with the doors removed, and I will look to start this kit as soon as I have finished off the multitude of half finished wagon kits I have.  

Some more shots of the finished wagon.

Next weekend I plan to set the layout up on Saturday and spend a little time running some trains.  I will see how this wagon performs on the layout and I am looking forward to seeing it running.  I also have a few other wagons very near completion and the detailing of the class 50 and 45 is progressing well.  All in all, very satisfying to see some progress.

Some buildings for the new micro layout

I have continued to make a little progress on a few models.  Time sometimes seems to run away and a week will pass with absolutely nothing having been achieved.  I think the change of routines due to lockdown and covid has hampered my modelling a little this year, but I am making a concerted effort to find dedicated modelling time and push some projects to completion.  I have a 3ft * 1.5ft baseboard to build for a new microlayout.  It will have a very basic track plan and will be connected to a series of other layouts (well that is the plan!).  So over summer I managed to make a start on two buildings for this first micro  layout, being a goods shed and a platform shelter.

The good shed is an LCUT small goods shed, laser cut, wooden kit.  It is an interesting model to construct and it is my first laser cut kit.  In the building stages it seems a little basic, although I plan to add some guttering and down pipes to flesh out the detail a little.  I am hoping to get it finished over the next week.  Until its painted I will reserve judgement on the kit, but the parts fit together nicely and it seems pretty study.

Goods shed during construction.

Close up showing the detail on the kit.

The second building undergoing construction is the platform and shelter.  I have scratchbuilt the platform shelter from plasticard and rectangular plastic struts.  It is a simple building, but the dimensions look about right.  The platform is also going to be built from plasticard and Dart castings SR platform legs.  The platform itself is an ongoing construction (i.e. I am thinking about it!!!).

Platform shelter after construction.

However, it is pleasing to see the models progressing a little and I might even get around to building the baseboard kit this week!  In addition, a few models are nearing completion in the paint shop, so hopefully a few finished models to post on here in the next couple of weeks.