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.