Bachmann class 25 repaint - the next one..

A quick update on the repainting of another locomotive, this time a BR blue class 25 (just like the last time!!). Building on the lessons I learnt with the last one, I decided to pre-shade this one, painting weathered black along all the seams of the body shell, after it had been primed in white. After painting the ends yellow I have put on 3 shades of BR blue, but deliberately thinner over some parts of the body sides, to mimic faded paint. The photographs were taken after 2 coats, a further coat has been added this evening. Transfers, weathering and varnish to go. Hopefully, I will get an update up in a couple of weeks showing the finished article...

Original paint finish on the model

The variation in the livery on the body sides is an attempt to replicate faded paint

The roof of the locomotive shows the pre-shading beneath the BR blue

Departmental brake van and a GWR tunny

At last some modelling time!! This weekend I have finally had sometime to play trains and the first task has been to paint my class 25. This is coming along nicely and I hope will be ready for transfers next week. In between bouts of air brushing I have been building and converting some wagons.

Brake van with couplings converted, note the factory finished weathering

First up has been the coupling conversion of the Bachmann BR 20T brake van, now seconded into departmental stock. The model comes factory weathered and I must say I think it is pretty good. The roof weathering is a bit weak, but the body sides are pretty well done. The coupling conversion to 3 links couplings was a complete pig to do - in common with nearly all Bachmann wagons!! Once the holes were opened out a bit to accept the coupling hook, part of the underframe moulding had to be dremmelled away. Anyhow, it has all fitted back together pretty well and is ready to be washed and then have the weathered finish slightly upgraded!!

GWR tunny on on the work bench

The other project which I was working on yesterday was a Chivers Finelines GWR tunny wagons. I have built loads of Chivers kits and they are top quality. The build on this wagon will get finished this weekend and it will get washed with the brake van for spraying next week. I also have the sturgeon wagon sat on my desk and I also hope to progress this build today.

I have seen on the interweb that Bachmann are about to release a series of wagons as olive green departmental stock, such as the 13t and 16t mineral wagons and a PMV. These are all projects I have undertaken recently, building wagons kits and converting them into departmental stock!!! Hey ho, sods law I guess, although I think I probably prefer building the kits anyway.

13t open wagon in southern engineers stock

Finished 13t wagon now used in my engineers fleet

It has ages since my last post. A combination of being away and a broken camera put pay to my modelling and blogging activities recently. After a lovely family wedding last weekend I got home last week. This has allowed me to finish at least one of my current projects which is a 13t open wagon which has been drafted into the southern region engineering stock in the 1970s/80s for transfer of spoil and aggregates.

It was a fairly simple project, building the parkside wagon kit for the 13t open wagon (diag 1/041), with only some metal buffers added to the build. After priming it was painted with light rust and weathered black. The transfers are standard Model Master ones, and the underframe had a light dusting of frame dirt over the chassis, after the transfers had been sealed with matt varnish. The whole wagon was given a sealing coast of satin varnish and there you have it. Another wagon to put into my varied mix of engineering stock.

I have a sturgeon and GWR tunny on my desk at the moment, and I also have the transfers for the tunny wagons (CCT transfers thank you!!), so hopefully I can finish a couple more wagons off over the next couple of weeks. I also plan a day or two on my stalled class 119 DMU. Incidentally, the news from Bachmann that they are releasing a class 101 DMU is welcome news to me, I just wonder if I can persuade them to also do a class 120 DMU too...

Class 153 summer saturday service

Caught on a summers saturday in June 1993, a class 153 runs into Georegham Halt, heading toward Ilfracombe. How things have changed since the days of 10 coach ACE workings direct from Waterloo.

The 153 is the popular Hornby model. It represents one of my first attempts at weathering and needs revisiting in the not too distant future.

Engineering works on Georgeham

Today I managed to put the finishing touches to a Heljan dogfish wagon. This model had its original dutch paint removed in superstrip and was repainted/weathered using weathered black and rust, with the frame dirt around the solebars. Transfers were added from Modelmaster, before a unifying satin varnish finish. It is seen here on a summer Sunday within a short engineering train passing through Georgeham, behind a very grubby class 25. The class 25 has been demoted to the running secondary freight and permanant way department workings across the southwest and needs a good clean!

Short engineering working passes through Georgeham

Finished dogfish wagon

The shark wagon is also pretty grubby

As is the class 25

Georgeham detailing

Today I have spent a bit of time pottering around the railway room, trying to make some space for the new layout. Pottington Quay is now up on the trestles ready for detailing and Georgeham was moved to the living room to make some space. With Georgeham in the living room I added a sign for station and added a few rocks in the station car park - something which is quite common down in Devon.

Birds eye view of the micro-layout

New sign pointing the way to the station

This layout is now finished (something I have probably said before on this blog). Now what to do with the layout.......it has to go - we have no room to store it with a new project on the go. But what to do with it - it seems such a shame to throw it landfill or break it up......what does everyone else do with their old layouts I wonder???....thoughts or suggestions welcome.....

Some rocks at the edge of the car park

My favourite view of the microlayout, viewing towards Ilfracombe

A little bit of frustration, a small diorama and a sturgeon

For a change life has been hectic, and a weeks holiday and a nasty summer virus have taken there toll on modelling activities. However, during the last week my son got a bit of a modelling bug and produced a little diorama on which to display some of the wagons he is building. It is an excellent effort, which he achieved over a couple of days.

My sons diorama

I was also pretty excited by the arrival of the cambrian sturgeion recently, and I have started putting it together. Admittedly, I have not got very far with the build of this wagon, but it looks like another excellent kit from carmbrian.

Sturgeon under construction

Which leads to another thing; last week an e-mail from modelmaster and a notice on their website shows that the freight wagon minipacks, which contain the decals for the lamprey, crab, whale, ling, tunny and sturgeon wagons are being withdrawn or maybe not produced at all.....I have been waiting over a year for these!!....if anyone knows where I can get the transfers for these wagons in 4mm scale I would be delighted to hear from you - it is desperately frustrating not being able to finish some of these wagons due to lack of decals......Anyhow, just a quick update, more later this week on ongoing projects.