Fits and starts. After a determined and productive period of modelling earlier in the year real life (work, gardening, hospital appointments (not mine), dog, keeping air in bicycle tyres, more work etc) has seeped back in somewhat and I haven't spent as much time at the workbench. Modelling has been happening but it's not been much to shout about.

The S7 test plank - since the last entry on the subject I've got bogged down rather on the brick retaining wall. Getting the wall built was easy enough. Getting it painted turned out to be a test of character. Started off well enough. I painted the base colours for the engineering bricks and the red bricks with matt enamels. Then I made a mess of the mortar courses. Trying to run a mortar coloured paint into the grooves didn't work well and I ended up with some avant grade paint effects. Then reading up about painting bricks (after the attempt you'll note!) I discovered that I'd have been better scrubbing the mortar into the grooves first and then dry brushing the bricks over that. I found an old tinlet of approximately mortar coloured paint and applied that, only to discover that what I thought was matt turned out to the glossy side of satin when dry. Great, shiny mortar! Gave it a break for a few days to let the disappointment wear off. Then to dry brush the bricks, except that's more difficult now because the enamel brick colours won't dry brush as easily over gloss. Pants! But press on. I also discovered that where I'd washed some of the brickwork sheet joints with solvent to merge the gaps I'd managed to wash away some of the brick relief so there wasn't as much texture to dry brush. The only option was to paint those bricks individually. Double pants! That's 1.5 metres of 7mm brickwork to laboriously dry brush and pick out the missing bricks. At this point the excitement had worn off and the creative impulse to make a quick test track was well buried. I also found that the layout of the work room and the amount and direction of natural light meant that it was getting more and more difficult to see properly to work on it in the evenings as I worked from one end to the other. Finally got the chance to take it outside in the sun at the weekend and complete the brick painting. With just the basic colours it sort of shouts, so I've started to tone and weather it down so it will sit in the background visually. It's not as good as I'd wished but I can probably live with it. I'll post some photos when its finished.

The 7mm MMP 1/108 kind of stalled at the painting and weathering stage. The experiment with salt weathering promised much but didn't work out as expected. Some military modellers get great rust effects this way, I need to practice more. So I'm back to my usual technique of painting on the rust pattern from representative photos. This portraiture takes a while on 4mm stock, and it takes a whole lot longer on 7mm stock. I do a bit when I'm in the mood and It's getting there. Again, I'll post photos when there's something presentable. I have some decals for it now as well.

The 4mm 3D printed springs and axleboxes from Modelu have been fitted to the Stanier brake van. The brake van construction is complete and it's now in primer. The 3D printed springs and axleboxes really look the part and although they are relatively small details it makes big difference. The character of the Stanier brake van is captured very well. Somehow I managed to miss some noticeable gaps in the soldered body around the duckets. Goodness knows how I didn't see them when I was cleaning it for paint, but the primer showed them up straight way. They've been filled and it's waiting for me to rub it down and repaint in places. There was an interesting diversion to evaluate several shades of grey paint to see which best matched BR freight grey. There are some right funny shades of grey masquerading as BR grey! I'll post the results some time.

I have some more parts to build the P4 Impetus Hunslet15" but that's about to be overtaken by a new project - an 8F in S7. That'll make a blog or two at some point when I actually get started.

Yes, 7mm is addictive, but I don't think it will displace P4 from my life completely. I'll wander from 4 to 7 and back again as the mood takes me. Another great way of starting more projects and finishing less! I've joined the Scaleseven Group and I've applied to join Western Thunder because there seems to be a bunch of accomplished and knowledgable 7mm folk in that group. Apparently my request is being considered by moderators. Obviously they're particular about who they admit. I guess they hold long meetings in darkened rooms to review applicants