00 Gauge engine shed

Over the Christmas break (which now seems like such a long time ago) I attempted to scratchbuild a new engine shed for my upcoming Pottington Quay layout.  I have never developed the skills to scratch build to real effect and this effort was just to get the feel of some new materials/techniques.  I made a rough out of an engine shed in foamboard and then coated this with PVA glue and DAS clay. This was then scribed when half dry with the sharp point of a needle file and a patchwork of stones was made on each wall.  The roof was made from individual paper tiles, cut from plasticky circulars posted through the front door, glued down with PVA glue.  The doors and windows were made from wooden coffee stirrers that I recycled from work - which is an excellent source of free scale wood!!

Finished derelict engine shed - minus a few little details - namely guttering and drain pipes.

I particularly like the 'Keep out' sign hand painted on the window

This had various shades of acryclics washed over it before a few sprays of mouldy green around the base - a common of feature of many older buildings in the wet atlantic climate of Devon.  The model was always designed as a derelict shed, just away from the new modern facilities of the wagon repair works.  To this end, it will be obscured from view by vegetation and is just being used to form part of the 'scene'.  The building has things like broken tiles/wonky roof and snapped planks in the boarded up windows/doors  to give it a dilapidated look, attempting to make it look like it belongs to to the bygone steam age before rationalisation.  There are various little tweaks I need to make to it to finish it off, such as some guttering and drainpipes.  However, it is largely finished - and I am pretty happy with it.  For sure I know it is not perfect - but it is a first attempt and I certainly know where I went wrong with this one, ready for a more serious attempt next time...and it was great fun to make.  We spent many a happy Sunday afternoon watching TV with me sitting on the dining room table building this, as the winter rolled by -  lovely memories.

Back of building showing the mouldy green.

The main shed before the roof was finished - I used a Dance Hall brake van under construction to give me a sense of how the finished building would scale up.

The front of the building - I think it needs an old lock added.

Having seen the results that some other modellers get using these materials I was keen to give it a go and having achieved this with my first go and I can now see a way of making more realistic and individual buildings for my layouts.  This is a step into a new world of modelling for me and I am keen to make further progress with scratch building. 

More parcels stock - Hornby SPV

Another wagon has been added to the parcels stock for Pottington Quay.  This is the Hornby SPV parcels wagon.  I took the wagon apart and added a set of three link couplings.  After this it was given an all over wash of a weathered black/frame dirt mix, before wiping most of this away with a cotton bud.  Then various shades of sleeper grime, frame dirt and weathered black were air brushed back over the wagon to finish it off.  All in all a super quick and satisfying project.  I have another two of the Parkside kits already built so these will bring the total number of SPV wagons up to 4 for the layout.  I am also building a couple more CCTs and a further PMV to add to the parcels stock - then that should be more than enough for layout.

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.