I'm a victim of my own interests - I'm sure I'm not alone in having a myriad of projects on my workbench at one time all vying for my attention.

Well Rose Hill has taken a bit of a back seat if I'm honest with the construction of my first etched brass kit for Meadow Lane (my Manchester Ship Canal Railway project) and tinkering on OO stuff from time to time as Paxton Road crawls forwards.

However, with the kit stalled awaiting some weighting to improve running I looked to my masking tape an airbrush and decided it was time to start painting the Pacer.

Those that followed this project will remember it's a very early Hornby model - with significant re-worked detail above and below the chassis with a simple Ultrascale conversion to P4. I started by spraying on the white paint on the doors and where the stripes were. When this was dry I masked the body and sprayed the yellow ends. When this was dry I did the roof and inside ends. I was now at a point where I could begin on the sides - and started with masking the yellow, grey and the doors/white striped. I applied the purple (which ended up being Halfords 'Berry Purple' as I couldn't get a good enough match by mixing) all over and then once this was dry masked the purple and applied the blue. When all the masking was removed - success! Certainly a unit that looked Northern!

The night after I added the black cab window surrounds and the orange cantrail stripe using a lining pen.

I couldn't help myself this evening and dug out the custom transfers John at Precision Labels had made up for me They look superb don't they! After splashing some matt black on the chassis, and temporarily fitting the glazing, I posed her outdoors for a few shots to show you all how she's coming together (very nicely indeed - I'm very happy!).Hornby Pace

I mentioned in the forum earlier in the week that I've also made some progress on the station building. This is now at a position where I can add the detailing (pipe runs, guttering, signage etc) as I've finished the basic brick and roof finish. This has been achieved using just Humbrol 100, 98 and 33 - along with some white 34. Mixing on a pallette and then dry brushing on the brick colour - building this up and then adding washes of brown and grey when it was dry to try and match prototype photos! I think it's showing some real promise!

Questions, comments and encouragement all welcomed! I hope to finish the Pacer before getting stuck back into painting the kit - and the station is a nice 'hospital job' I can pick up between other projects. The pub however hasn't progressed at all with a lack of enthusiasm for cutting out hundreds more windows and making a very tricky roof. One day!