10t Starfish in 00

Another little project that has been finished off recently is a 10t Starfish wagon for the permanent way on the Pottington Quay layout.  This is the Cambrian kit that I built way back in 2013, but did not retrieve from storage until last year.  Whilst painting the 0 gauge Grampus I also gave this a few blasts of weathered black and rust shades from the airbrush.  Having built it so long ago I had forgotten where I was in the process.  One of the ends was not quite glued on straight and I had meant to file the wagon end down to cover this but had subsequently forgotten.  However, it is not too noticeable in the photographs.

The kit when it has been built is featherweight - too light to run without the risk of derailment.  So when we get back to Devon and everything comes out of storage, I am going to glue some spent ballast into the wagon to provide some weight.  The transfers are from Modelmaster and went on without any bother.  As described in some other posts, I had some issues with the last set of transfer application on the the SPV.  This time I ensured a super glosss finish and the transfers went on without any problems.

This has been a very enjoyable little project and I have a second one of these already built waiting for some paint.  It is going to wait a good while though, as we have moved house yet again and the air brush is back in storage.  Our next house will be a permaent stop back home in North Devon and we hope to have completed the move around August.  Until then work commitments and life are getting in the way!  Luckily I have a few kits kicking around to finish off, so I at least can get some modelling done over the next months, before setting up my layouts and starting again in earnest.

More parcels stock - Plywood sides CCT

Another wagon for the Pottington Quay parcels train has made it out of the workshops.  This time a mixed plywood/planked CCT, finished in a faded grubby BR blue livery.  I really enjoyed the painting on this, mixing various shades of BR blue together and patch painting the body.  I added in the windows and then gave them a clean to represent a part cleaned window on a grubby CCT.  Unfortunately, I am not that happy with the outcome of this one.  There is poor transfer application (my fault again!) and an ill fitting roof, both of which I find slightly annoying.  As mentioned on my last post, I have not paid enough attention to the fitting of the roofs on these CCT kits prior to painting and this is something I will definitely work on on future builds.  The windows are not great either - I did not use glue and glaze on either CCT, and regret this.  It is a funny thing about modelling, you put a lot of time and effort into finishing something, and all you can see are the imperfections!  

The faded BR blue over the black pres-shading.

As time is at premium at the moment, I am going to wrap it up in box, put it into storage with a number of other wagons and when Pottington Quay is finally resurrected, I will decide what to do with it.  It is ok for now, but I think in the fullness of time I will strip it down and start the paint job again.  Until then, it will be ok in the mixed rake of parcels stock, and probably in time I will forget about the bits I do not like and never get around to correcting it!!

Finished CCT - with some minor niggles...

Parcels stock continued - 12t Express Parcels van

After finishing the CCT in the last post, I positioned it next to the 12t parcels van I finished a few weeks ago and the poor transfers were all to evident for me to see.  Noticing this I took the 12t parcels van back into the workshop and gave it a much heavier weathering in order to disguise the transfers. This seems to have been successful, in that the silvering on the transfers has now disappeared., although I am annoyed my poor transfer application meant this had to happen in the first place.

Anyhow, these are the first wagons for the parcels train finished.  I have the Hornby SPV in the paintshop at the moment and another CCT has had its final varnish coat applied, so it is now ready too - I will post it on here later next week.  I have two more 12t fish wagons built and ready for painting and the new Bachmann CCT sat ready to have its couplings converted.  I might just build that BY wagon I have had sat around for ages this weekend and purchase a couple more CCTs to build and then that will be enough for my Pottington Quay layout.

CCT in BR Blue

After the 12t fish wagon was finished as a SPV parcels wagon, the second of the wagons for the parcels service is ready for action.  This time it is a BR blue CCT.  This is the basic Parskide kit for the uneven plank southern CCT. The only additions to the original kit are the correct buffers and the fitting of 3 link couplings.

As mentioned elsewhere on my blog, my son I started building this kit together several years ago (when he still played with trains!), but he has now grown out of this, having hit his young adult years.  So I rescued this from the part finished box and completed it over xmas.  The finish has a lovely variation to the blue, with a variety of coats of different blue coming together.  The transfers also went on this one pretty well and all in all I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  The transfers are a little bit of a flight of fancy, as I could not find the correct ones in the Modelmaster range for blue CCTs.  However, I have just found out that Railtec do the correct transfers, so on the next batch of CCTs I will use their transfers

I realised that when building these kits I rely on the roof to automatically be a perfect fit.  As I do not glue the roof on until I finish the paint job on the van body, I often do not notice this until too late in the day.  The roof on this van is a bit of a niggly fit and I wish I had known this at the building stage. However, it is ok and not that noticible, so I will go with it for now and make sure I pay more attention to this when I build a few more of these kits in the coming months.

As for the first SPV I decided I could not stand the awful silvering of the transfers, so it is currently back in the paintshop having more muck sprayed over it, to cover up that poor finish.  I will hopefully have this finished next week.  Finshing a couple of wagons in 00 gauge has cerainly whetted my appetite for modelling in this scale again and I am keen to get some more wagons painted and finished.

0 gauge Grampus - some rusty thoughts

Well it was back to work with a thud this week, after enjoying a lovely extended xmas break and equally relaxing start to the new year.  With plenty of time off I started to make some real progress on  the long list of ongoing, unfinished, projects.  Two projects that made some real headway were the 0 gauge 13t sand wagon and the 0 gauge grampus wagon.

The first finished 0 gauge kit

The 0 gauge grampus wagon is now finished. I tried to create a well worn rusty look to the wagon, through multiple passes with the airbrush and lots of weathering.  The result I am reasonably happy with, I think it looks like a grampus wagon.  However, the more I was working on the body for this, the less happy I was with my rendition of a rust-effect on the wagon sides.

Part of my dissatisfaction for the rust appearances I am creating is the lack of relief that is caused by the use of airbrushed paints when simulating rust patches.  So I have started some experiments with the new Noch scenic rust kit.  I plastered this over a corrugated model roof this morning and am waiting to see the results.  I want to apply it to this wagon, but am worried about ruining the finish, so I am going to put the grampus in the  finished box and maybe return to it in a few months.

Consequently, I am considering applying the scenic rust to the sand wagon, which is having its first coats of varnish ready for the transfers.  It seems to me that to get the best out of the scenic rust you need to use it in a moderate way and work this into the painting of the wagon.  It also seems too coarse for 4mm, so I am going to build an 0 gauge Slaters 13t steel open or a Parkside 16t mineral wagon and have an experiment on this.  I think that I need to be confident about applying it before I use it on finished kits.

However, my first 0 gauge wagon rolls out of the workshop and I am delighted with it.  The detail and painting is fantastic and I already have backlog of 0 gauge kits to build and others ready for the paintshop.  The 0 gauge bug has well and truly bitten, and I think that I am looking more and more to 0 gauge.  In fact, I have an awful lot of 00 gauge stock in boxes in storage and I am considering selling some of this to fund further 0 gauge purchases, not least a JLTRT class 33....an 0 gauge shunting plank is definitely on the way.

Parcels service: 12t parcel van finished (finally)

A merry xmas to everyone and best wishes for the new year!  Following on from my post several months ago about painting a series of vans for parcels traffic on Pottington Quay, I have finally managed to finish the first one.  It is a 12t fish van that has been converted to an SPV van for parcels traffic.  This wagon was built about a year ago, so it is brilliant to finally see it finished.

Overall I am reasonably happy with this one, but again the transfer application was not perfect - despite being applied to a super gloss surface, however, at normal viewing distance I don't think it will be noticeable.  I made a real effort with the livery application on this wagon, with something in the region of 20 different coats applied via air brush and also using paintbrush washes.

On top of a black pre-shading a faded livery was applied before weathering.  It is difficult to now see the tonal variation in the original livery application, although the light where this was photographed was not brilliant.  After this various coats of (all railmatch paints) sleeper grime, frame dirt and weathered black were applied, before a final satin varnish finish.  

As well as this wagon I have been working on two CCTs, both in BR blue.  The first of these is is already finished with the final varnish currently drying.  The second CCT has had the decals applied and is waiting for the roof and windows to be added before further weathering.

I have got another 2 of these 12t parcels wagons already built waiting for the paintshop in 00 gauge, as well as 1 in 0 gauge.  Using the lessons learnt from this wagon, I intend to upscale and finish the 0 gauge wagon using pretty much the same techniques, and when I have finished the current batch of wagons this will be the next project.

Another project which has been going on for way too long is the sturgeon wagon in 00 gauge.  This is now 95% finished, except I cannot find any 10.5mm disc wheels anywhere, and I only had two spare buffer heads to hand, so I need to order some more.  Both of these items (the buffers and the wheels) are made by Romford and both seem difficult to come by at the moment.  Anyhow, as soon as I track some down, I can get some primer on this one too.  Although it took ages to finish this wagon, it is a pretty simple construction and builds into a really good wagon.

The christmas break has afford some modelling time and there are also two 0 gauge wagons and an 00 gauge starfish wagon in the paintshop, as well as 00 gauge and 0 gauge brake vans under construction.   All in all it has been a productive few weeks and I hope to finish off at least two more wagons (and perhaps the Western) before returning to work.

16t Mineral wagon and a dogfish

I returned from my work trip to Africa earlier in December, and a months break from modelling really arrested any momentum I had with projects.  Since returning though I have slowly started to get back into the swing of modelling and the paintshop over the last week has been pretty busy.  I have 2 CCTs and 12t fish wagon all nearing completion, although the 12t fish wagon has had some horrible silvering on the transfers....I am not quite sure why this has happened as they were applied to a gloss surface, using micro set/sol.  One of today's tasks is to attempt to fix this issue.

16t mineral wagon

Anyhow, earlier in the week I got out my 16t mineral wagon and took a couple of better snaps of it.  This one is another wagon for Pottington Quay when it comes out of storage (which is only a few months away!!).  It was also my birthday in November and a late birthday present arrived - which was an 0 gauge Heljan dogfish.  This is a pretty good wagon - although the font on the data panel looks wrong to me (others have commented in this too), so I might replace this with some Railtec transfers.

0 gauge Heljan dogfish

This model will go with the 0 gauge grampus, which has now reached the transfers stage, and the 13t sand wagon is now in the paintshop.  These wagons will form the basis of a new 0 gauge micro layout and I aim to keep building new wagons throughout next year, and finishing some old ones - not least the 25t Pillbox brake van, started this time last year.  Whilst I still really enjoy 00 modelling I am finding myself more and more interested in 0 gauge modelling - and am looking forward to the Dapol 08 so I can have something to shunt these wagons around with.