With some free time this weekend further work on Brooke Stone could take place however I was still a bit undecided what to do next on the main board so with a list of small side projects to get underway I decided a spot of detailing and weathering would fill Saturday afternoon.

I wanted a van to sit on the back road round the side of the servicing building. Something that would provide storage for the depot and engines could be put to use shunting into a position of loading/unloading on the concrete pad.

A browse in the model shop the other day turned up a Hornby 20T ex ferry van (ZSX) which I liked the look of. Lots of potential for some effective weathering and a decent price at under a tenner ! The bonus was it was departmental grey/yellow and would match 50015 a treat.

Out the box it was all too clean, shiny and toy like for my tastes !

The undercarriage and couplings defiantly needed work so with a sharp knife away came the ugly couplings and I was left with something a little more eye catching for the right reasons !

Further detail was added in the form of vac & air pipes & a smart working coupling that I can loop over the hook on 50015. With the roads on Brooke Stone all being reasonable straight this connection will be adequate I think. Tail lamps added to the brackets and it was time to weather.

My weathering kit (!), nothing special and completely air brushless due to the cost, the cleaning & maintenance involved and also the fact I know I would be useless with it !!

Now, don?????t panic but first up was my customary blanket coat of Railmatch Frame Dirt in a can !! Bounced off the board the van stood on at close range and a spray across the roof from side to side left me with this mess !

Taking most of that off with thinner & cotton buds whilst still a little tacky provides the texture and coarse look to the bodywork. The cotton buds cant quite get into all the nooks & crannies so the impression of long standing muck building up in these areas is achieved.

Next up was several dustings of the 3 powders you saw within my kit. All rust, brown & yellow based these are applied with the bigger make up brush and pushed & worked into the general areas you would expect rust to have taken hold.

Using the powder in the Tamiya box which is a little thicker & oily compared to the loose stuff in the packets I added streaks of the rust colour concentrating on the door and the yellow stripe always working from top to botton and never left to right. Black powder was added to areas around the wheels and handbrake.

I picked out a few details with a thinner soaked cotton bud like the yellow axle box covers, lifting points, tail lamps & signage. After a good coat of matt varnish and a couple of dry & windy hours drying outside the finished van was complete and ready to take up residence as a internal user storage van at the quarry. Just a couple of stray hairs to pick off with the tweezers !!