Engineering Van - GWR Mink in Olive Green

This weekend I have finally managed to get some time to do some modelling!  All of Sunday has so far been spent at the modelling desk, building some wagon kits and doing some painting.  After a few hours a lot of projects feel like they are finally moving forwards - great stuff!  The class 45 is in the process of receiving its final varnish coats and I also finished the rebuilding of a salmon wagon I stripped the paint from in 2016!  Today, I also dropped the wheel sets into the GWR Mink wagon, which has been re-purposed into the engineers fleet.  I have no idea what this wagon would do in real life but it is going to form part of a train, with a motley collection of older wagon stock (a python, PMV, CCT, BY and Mk1 coach) all finished in olive green to add a bit of variety to the trains running on my layouts.

Finished GWR Mink wagon in 1970s olive green.

As per normal this wagon was finished using Railmatch enamel paints applied from an air brush.  The transfers are Modelmaster and it is fitted with metal buffers and three link couplings.  I mixed the olive green to have a faded colour, adding a little drop of white into the green paint, trying to replicate a wagon recently rebuilt, but having lived outdoors for a year or two.  I am very happy with this wagon and have the GWR python wagon ready for transfers, close on its heels.  A Mk1 coach (Bachmann) in olive green is also in the paintshop, so I am hopeful I can finish this rake of rolling pre-xmas.  Otherwise, I hope everyone is well and finding time to model.  

Another milk wagon

Progress has remained painfully slow on the modelling desk, with virtually no time for modelling again this week. This is a shame, but the world is in a strange place at the moment and there is little spare time in my daily life.  Anyhow, I did manage to finish another milk tanker for the layout a couple of weeks ago.  This is another Dapol model; these are not the best, but they all there is on the market.  I take these wagons apart and weather the different components separately before reassembly.  This model was finished with a livery that pre-dates the era I model.  So I painted and weathered over this, after sanding it down.  The idea was for a faded older livery to be poking through the grime.  Anyhow another wagon finished for the rake, only a couple more to do.

Finished milk tanker, with the older livery clearly peeking through.

Although actual modelling has been slow this week and the past couple, I have been thinking a lot about the next layout.  I do not have room to store to Charlton, so I am going to see if I can sell it.  This is quite a painful thing to do, but it is definitely time to move onto the next project and free up some space.  I now have a clear plan what I will do for the next layout, so it is just a question of ordering the baseboards this week.  I already have some of these, so it is a question of joining the dots - hopefully more to follow on this....

Some comings and goings and Charlton station

The last few weeks have been just as time consuming as the rest of this year, meaning modelling continues to take a back seat.  A few models are nearing completion, namely the class 45 and a couple more vans for the engineers department.  This is great, but I am still yet to make a start on the new baseboard for the next micro layout, alongside fairly infrequent starting up of the air brush.  However, a couple of weekends ago I did manage to get the layout set up for an hour or two on Sunday afternoon and run a couple of trains.  So here is a class 25 on an engineers strain, with the recently finished sturgeon wagon, alongside some other kit built stock (dance hall brake van, salmon wagon, CCT, BY and 20t brake van).  Then the same class 25 on parcels train with more kit built stock (CCTs and SPVs).  Just running these trains does give me a great amount of pleasure knowing the time and effort I put into building these different models.  Fingers crossed for some more progress later this month, although time is very limited between now and mid December....

Class 25 on an engineers train.

Same locomotive on the same day on a parcels turn.