Now that the TPO coach is as finished as it can be for the moment, I have turned attention back to a couple of other projects.

First up the Mk3 TGS shown earlier this week, the final job to complete prior to varnishing and reassembly was to paint the window frames. I am not going the whole hog on these (without fitting the Shawplan etch it would be very difficult to match the part green part stainless finish of the real thing). Instead I have picked out the frames in silver to match the Hornby mk3s. So far I have only finished one side (wisely deciding to let one side dry before painting the other), painted by hand very carefully. There was one slip (and being enamel it takes a bit more cleaning up than a slip on a GWR door window frame painted with acrylic that I was doing earlier in the week.)

The other side will be finished off tonight, before varnishing tomorrow if its dry….

While I had the silver paint out, I cracked on with another more critical job. I want to get my Cargowaggon twin running on the layout for its debut in February, so I need to crack on and get it painted.
The first job is painting the sides silver, it will then be masked and the yellow background for the logos sprayed on (this will be my first time spraying Vallejo Model Air and I am interested to know the effects of cold temperatures when spraying this.) The roof (currently blue) should be grey for the pair that I am modelling (a good thing given the blue didn’t spay well on the roof), so this will be painted with a weathered mix of Vallejo Grey Black lightened with white), while the lower chassis (which should be blue) will be treated to my standard coach underframe mix of Grey Black, light brown, and German Cam Brown) given that on the real thing you cant see any blue at all on the chassis!

Eventually it will need some heavy weathering on the sides, though I doubt that will be done in time for Feb, maybe for Taunton in April….