The big AEC shown earlier in the blog is now all but finished, though it needs a dose of weathering. Painting road vehicles is a slow job,even when the end result is a simple, one colour livery such as that used by BRS. Partly it's the different sorts of detail (particularly chrome) which isn't normally associated with railway vehicles and partly because they're usually a bit cleaner - for a road haulier, their vehicles are as much bill-boards as hardware - not sparkling necessarily, but probably shinier than your average 'Black 5'.

This one was painted by hand. Three, thin, coats of Humbrol matt Scarlet allowed to dry, then a coat of Johnson's Klear to seal it. Following the first pass of detail painting, it looked like this:

The second pass, which picked out the radiator grill, the window rubbers and the chrome and it looks a lot more like a lorry:

Note that the radiator surround is grey rather than shiny. Not every operator polished the aluminium up, so a metallic paint isn't really necessary. Fully lettered and glazed (a combination of Pocketbond packaging, Ferrero Rocher box and clear plastic sheet...), it scrubs up fairly well I think. There's another view here, but that's all for now.

Happy new year.

Adam