O Gauge test Track and O gauge musings

I have recently been clearing out a lot of OO gauge unstarted projects from my modelling boxes and selling these items on ebay. I have been guilty of buying way too much rolling stock for projects that I never get around too and having a declutter has been good (and made some space too). The thing I like about O gauge is that the rolling stock is a little more expensive(!), so it makes one really consider what they are going to buy. I have been talking to my partner for weeks about what locomotive I really want to get next in O gauge, when I stopped and thought - exactly what projects do I have to finish for my O gauge layouts? Well the answer was, rather more than I had started!

So in an attempt to not buy more than I need, I took out my O gauge locomotives that I have not started to detail. There is a quite a lot there. I have a warship about to be detailed and a class 33 about to head into a bath of superstrip (just waiting for a delivery). Alongside this I have a western and a hymek to detail, alongside a class 122 that I have dismantled and made no further progress on. And of course there are many more coaches and wagons waiting in the queue. So the upshot, I really do not need to buy more rolling stock! However, I am sure that it will happen of course. As modellers we all like to have projects we cannot wait to get around too and buy (probably) too much stuff. Taking out these O gauge locomotives was great fun. They are seriously impressive and imposing models. Looking at them made me really excited about running my O gauge layout, although ideally I would like to buy a few more locomotives to complete my western diesel fleet (class 31, class 37, class 47 and 50!)....

O gauge western waiting for detailing.

A class 35 Hymek; I am undecided whether I will repaint this into BR Blue.

A class 42 warship; this is the next one to work through detailing and DCC sound chipping. This locomotive will be finished as D810 Cockade - one of the later lived class 42s.

Anyhow, moving onwards, the microlayout continues to make slow progress, whilst the main layout has not been touched for almost a year (erghhh) - house renovations have taken their toll. However, I have a plan for completion of the text track; I am just waiting for some plasticard to arrive to build a a small platform, alongside building the goods shed.  Then I hope to move swiftly on to painting the track, installing point motors and ballasting. The main layout will really start to be detailed the other side of summer, so there is plenty of time to get stuck into some modelling, before crakcing on with the main layout again. 

O gauge progress - wagons and buildings

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter weekend. I have been modelling away on a quite a few projects recently and although I have been making some progress, it all feels a little slow and disjointed. In theory I have more time to model nowadays, although in reality progress is somewhat slower than I would like. I currently have a lot of projects on the go and this scattergun process means that attention is somewhat divided between multiple tasks. I spent Easter Monday modelling away on a few projects and I have decided that I need to finish off a set of these current projects before moving onto the next ones. This involves finishing off a number of wagons and buildings that are 'in progress' before starting anything else.....

I currently have a number of locomotives stripped down ready to weather/ and detail, including a class 33 and a 122 DMU. The class 03 is heading through the paint shop and I reckon that I will be ready to reassemble this in a week or two. The body weathering has been finished and most of the chassis has been done, although there are a couple of bits to finish off with the airbrush before I can reassemble the locomotive. The class 33 on the other hand has been disassembled, with the body about to head into a wash of Superstrip, whilst I weather the bogies and underframe.

The class 03 bodyshell has been largely repaired following a fall to the floor and is now finished. A bit more weathering is needed on the chassis.

The Heljan class 33 body is ready to head into a bath of Superstrip. You do need quite a lot of paint stripper to cover an O gauge body shell.

I am also keen to get the microlayout scenery going and to do that I need to build several structures. I have a pub at the end of layout that acts a scenic break. This building is currently being 'polyfillared' before scribing. There is also a grounded van body and a goods shed to start building. I also need to build a platform for the microlayout, although the plasticard to do this is not yet ordered. Unfortunately, these tasks all need doing before I start ballasting on the microlayout, so for now I can get as a far as track painting, whilst I build these structures. I am also going to motorise the points on the micro layout, using the excellent DCC concepts point motors and levers. Again, this task has not been started yet.

The beginnings of the pub that will act as a scenic break at the end of layout.

I have made a little progress with some wagon projects. I managed to finish the weathering of a Dapol open wagon. This wagon was weathered using AK Interactive washes and filters, before finishing off with an air brush. I wanted to expand my skills/techniques in weathering and this wagon was a test bed - it has turned out OK I think. I definitely started to get the hang of using these washes/filters and although more practice is required, it is not a bad start. I did try to fitting a Geoscenics tarpaulin onto the wagon and have subsequently decided that I was not happy with the look of the taup and it has now been removed.

Finished Dapol open wagon, ready for use.

I also finished the build of the 12T standard van over the wagon, This is the Slaters kit and was a straightforward built. However, it was also one of those projects that for whatever reason was a bit of fight from start to finish. I am not 100% happy with the fit of the roof, however, I am certain that once painted all the little niggles of the build will be forgotten. A good paint job can hide a multitude of sins! This is also the last box van for the fertiliser train on the main layout, so my first rake of O gauge wagons has now been completed!

12T standard van ready for painting.

So that is my progress update, despite a lack of posting there has been a bit going on.  The aim is to finish off a couple more wagons right now and get the buildings sorted out for the microlayout. Then I can seriously think about weathering/detailing more rolling stock.