O Gauge Sealion ballast wagon

I have always enjoyed modelling railway engineering wagons, so I was delighted when a new model of the Br Sealion wagon was released by Russ' Rail Labs (https://www.russraillabs.co.uk/model-catalogue-1). I had originally signed up for both the Shark and Sealion wagons when these were announced by Ellis Clark - although these models were subsequently cancelled. I had been contemplating a brass kit  to get some sealions for the layout - so I was eager to get hold of this model by Russ' Rail Labs. On opening the box the wagon is virtually complete and unpainted. It is not really a kit and is certainly not ready to run - it is more of a halfway house of an assembled body, which needs a few bits adding before painting.

The sealion with all the bits added, ready for a wash prior to painting.

The quality of the print is outstanding. After a quick perusal of the various pipes and buffers to add, I opted for some Slaters Oleo buffers instead of the the printed buffers, which would likely break through using 3 link couplings. I also added a Dapol 3 link coupling that I had lying around spare and glued in the pipes using some super glue. One minor niggle was the footsteps on each end of the wagon fouled the bogies a little. So I tried to gently nudge this outwards and in the end snapped them - so I reglued them at a slight angle pointing outwards. After a couple of hours the whole wagon was ready for a wash before painting.

Close up detail of one end of the sealion wagon.

The sealion is now in the paint boxes and will be painted in olive green livery over the coming weeks. I will definitely be purchasing another of these wagons and I am looking forward to the Shark brake van being released later this year.

Beyond the sealion, other modelling plods on a slowly. Another low relief warehouse is almost finished for the backscene. Once glued into place, I will be able to measure in another couple of low relief buildings and start closing the gap on the backscene behind the station. The warship still needs reassembling and the DCC sound chip wiring in, whilst I still have not finished reprogramming the class 122 DMU. As always there has been a lot of work and house pressures, which eats away the time for modelling. Hopefully, more updates to follow soon.