Christmas and New Year were great fun, but combining the family commitments and putting together an issue of my mountainbike e-zine I had very little time for modelling. The first two weeks of January have seen a reversal with a snow bound last week and issue deadline out of the way.

So what did I get for Christmas and what have I been working on recently?

I treated myself to the Bachmann sound equipped class 37 (in Railfreight grey) and a Dynamis controller. This has proved great fun (although I've yet to stretch her legs on Paxton Road). After posting up a thread before Christmas asking people to help me decide on a repaint I happened to mention in my status I'd fancy a swap. Chris56079 PM'd me offering a swap with his Bachmann Collectors Club 37411 Caerphilly Castle body, a locomotive I'd lusted after when it was released! Despite being well off period for Paxton Road a swap was duly arranged and since receiving her from Chris I've added the etched plates from Fox.

The etched plates from Fox fitted and the body placed on the sound chassis. When I got back into the hobby in 2007 this was one of the locomotives active on the mainline that I always wanted to model. It doesn't fit my layout time period but who cares! Now I can have a 2007 period with a few of the more modern vans when I want! As long as she never appears with my other 37411 we'll get away with it!

This model will be the third 37 I've worked over (previously a Mainline freight liveried 37/0 and an EWS 37/4) and I intend to build on the experience of the other two with this one! She'll receive snowploughs (thanks to Mark Miller), new buffers and MU socket, bufferbeam plumbing and ETH cable. I'll add speedo drive, brake actuation chains, sanding pipework and some detailing around the fuel tanks before a very delicate weathering with a little road dirt on the chassis, ploughs and some exhaust staining and dirt on the roof panels. I'll also try opening out the face of the air horns with a small drill bit as well as I've looked at the turned options from Markits and A1 models and I don't think they really capture the size of the 37 horns accurately.

Expect some photos posed on Paxton Road when the weather warms up!

A humble EWS liveried Bachmann Seacow also appeared on my workbench over Christmas and was far too pristine with it's crisp grey interior to not undergo the weatherers brush (so to speak).

I've always had an issue with the paint finish on Bachmann Seacows; when weathering with Humbrol enamels it's very very difficult to build up layers of grime successfully as the paint doesn't ever seem to dry and adhere to the paint permanently so that when you apply a second colour, the white spirit in the wash starts to soften and dissolve the earlier layer. This is fine in little areas as it gives realistic scuffs in the dirt, but across the whole wagon side is quite annoying. Anyhow, moan over suffice to say I've got one side I'm happy with and the other has been rubbed off with a cotton bud for a second attempt.

The side I'm happy with pictured below, along with the other Seacows that are in use on Paxton Road, whose weathering and detailing is described here.

The start of the effect is simply a liberal coating of Humbrol 98 (Matt Chocolate) all over! The bogies, wheelsets and bufferbeams all get it neat whilst the bodyside and ends get a thinned down wash applied. Once this has thoroughly dried I mix some Humbrol 33 (Matt Black) and 98 together and slightly thin this. This is applied over rivet detail and fabrication edges before being sponged off with a cotton bud in a vertical brushing action (top to bottom). I'm quite happy with the side that's pictured, the other side ended up with too much thinners added and the whole finish coming off with the cotton bud. Take this stage carefully building up slowly or use acrylics or a varnish coat between weathering.

This wagon now needs a decent internal weathering to match it's sisters on the layout, something I'll get round too in a few weeks when I come back to finish the second side.

As well as making a start on the second structure for Rose Hill I've also dug out some other older models to progress with for Paxton Road. The rake of PNAs is progressing nicely with all 4 now fitted with Brunninghaus suspension units (as per this description on my blog) and have the initial chassis and bodyside weathering applied. Still to complete is a dusting of powder on the chassis to build up the shadows and texture, painting the buffer shanks silver and applying weathering and some remains of a spoil load to the interiors.

The PNAs here are 75% complete and bookend the main era of Paxton Road (1998-2002).

So that's it for now really. Expect more in the coming weeks as I've some detailing bits to start adding to Paxton Road, along with progressing the scenery around the MOD depot building pictured a few weeks before Christmas.

Comments questions and anything else welcomed, please use the comments feature or contact me by PM.