Recently the building of both the OO and O gauge layouts has been slow. The weather has been glorious, we have had people to stay and there has not been enough time or space to set up the layouts to work on them. So the small bits of time I have had for modelling I have been focusing on building some wagons for the O gauge layout. In reality the O gauge layout is miles away from being usable; I only have two wagons finished, no locomotives finished and only non detailed rtr coaches. So there is very little useable stock for the layout, coupled with the detailing on the layout being in a very basic state. However, the joy of O gauge is certainly building the rolling stock, in my case very slowly. It is a very satisfying way to model.
So first off I managed to finish the Slaters 13t open wagon. This is my first finished Slaters kit and I think I have now cracked the basic Slaters design. I am hopeful I can finish off some the other Slaters kits I have much more quickly now. The wagon is painted using the air brush with Railmatch enamels and uses Railtec transfers.
Next up is Parkside pipe wagon. This wagon I had built years ago and completely forgotten about. I found it in a box when we clearing out our storage unit. So this is now in the paintshop, again being painted with the air brush and Railmatch enamels. It is pretty much ready for transfers now and a bit more weathering.
I have also picked up a Pill Box brake van I started building in 2014; this build had stalled and I had lost the instructions. However, I now have a fresh set of instructions and am looking to complete this wagon over the next week and get it into the paintshop.
The main wagon I am currently building is the Slaters Vanwide kit; this kit is a little fiddly, although it is shaping up nicely. I am planning a modelling day tomorrow and I aim to complete this build tomorrow. This one has only be under way four months or so - so a speedy build!!!
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So some slow but continual progress. I have been thinking about the sort of trains I want to run on the layout and it will involve a lot of kit building. A small parcels train, a milk train and a fertiliser train using 12t vans, will require something about 12 wagons to be built. I also plan to build some engineering wagons - so it is going to be quite a lengthy process. However, I am enjoying the planning of the trains I am going to run and the building of kits - it is great to not be overwhelmed by having too much rolling stock. The next wagons in the line to start are a Slaters milk tanker, a CCT and another SPV. So plenty to do and plenty of enjoyment being had!
