I attended Preston show on Saturday and as per usual this really spured me on to finish some of my projects. Top of the list are these four engineers wagons in Gulf Red, they have been sitting 95% finished, in the dreaded 'WiP tray' for months now during a real lull in my modelling. All that was required was adding smiths couplings, wheels and the end chains to the mermaids. The last part proved to be the epitome of fiddly tedium, but the end result was worth it.

I also had the chance to meet Tony Wright in the flesh, who was very pleasant to talk to and was gracious enough to sign my copy of 'A Lifetime with Layouts and Locomotives'. I also picked up a Mercian Models kit of a Super D for the princely sum of £60 from the MillHolme Models/Stephenson Carriages chap, a definite candidate for my first loco kit build as it's deceptively simple and if it all goes wrong there is always my Bachmann one!

Anyhow, on to the models. The first wagon is another Cambrian Catfish, this one has been built with whitemetal oleo buffers and some spare plastic roller bearings as per the later batches:

Next up is a Ratio LMS 3-plank, this unfitted example has recently been transferred from revenue traffic to the engineers and has been repainted in gulf red. This is pretty much OOB, except for the obligatory white-metal buffers, an etched tiebar from Cambrian and some etched brake hangers.

Last of all are these two Cambrian Mermaids, despite the bad reputation this kit has, I honestly didn't find it that bad, although my skills have been honed on the Cambrian Catfish/Dogfish kit! Are they a little wonky? Most certainly, but despite this they are far more accurate than the Flangeway frankenstein version and cheaper too! And of course they have more variety, one has the kits split axleboxes and whitemetal oleos. The other has cast welded axleboxes and self-contained buffers.

Next up will likely be a couple of brakevans, namely a respray of a Hornby Shark that i stripped ages ago and also a Parkside kit for a Midland Brake-van that is currently half-built.

DW