As noted in the last post, the "production batch" of IHA wagons is progressing, albeit very slowly, towards completion. I'm building three more of these wagons, which will complete the planned requirement for this type in my steel coil fleet (which I described in my very first blog post, back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth). I've made some changes in the building sequence for these models, the most notable so far being that I haven't added any surface detail at all to the underframes. The various flanges, strengthening ribs etc. won't be added until after the hoods are completed, so that stray filler can't get tangled up in them, which did happen a bit with the first model.

At the moment, this is the state of play:

The first IHA that I built ended up having a very "taut" look to the hood. This is fine, because many wagons actually do look like that; but others don't and I want to try something a bit more "sculptural" with a couple of this batch. To that end, I've been playing with some test pieces, which are bits of 60-thou styrene on which various strips, rods and what-not have been stuck down. These are then covered over with filler and sanded to shape in the same way as I did with the first wagon. The idea is to see what best represents the kind of sagging, pulling and bunching effects that can be seen on the prototype. So far, I'd have to say that results have been mixed. I'm not sure that the Humbrol filler I've used up to now is just that well-suited to this purpose. I've got a tube of Squadron White which I'm going to try as well, although I really don't know how different it is from the Humbrol. More on this once the next batch of tests have been done.

Jim