I finished painting the last two limpets (the ones with the finer springs) today. First, here's another Dutch one:

based on this picture of 390317 by Andy Jupe: http://gingespotting.../p32727072.html

I really liked the detail of the TOPS panel covering an entire bodyside panel, and done recently enough that the black paint and axleboxes were relatively clean. Unfortunately I assumed that because I could paint out the dashed outline successfully, I could also join up the dots neatly. Not so! As you can see it's a bit freehand looking, I think the best fix is probably to paint out the white box entirely and leave the printed numbers and recoded M as-is. That should let the machine-printed horizontal number be the strongest feature again, and hide the fact that the M is hand painted.

I also have a single example in Loadhaul colours which is supposed to be following the picture in Nigel Burkin's book, but got a bit busier than I wanted it to.

I found fading the black difficult to do without getting blotches or tide marks visible - possibly because acrylics don't give much working time. I also found that one the printed panels came apart almost instantly the acrylic thinner hit it, hence the spot of patch painting on the right hand side. It's odd, the others were perfectly robust, but this one came off on both sides of the wagon. To hide the blotchy wash I made the spots and runs a bit stronger than the picture. I also had trouble with paint being knocked off the ribs leaving very strong black vertical lines - I've partly touched these in, but it looks like I might have to go back and redo this area now that I can see the pictures - far too much contrast.

The other side is similar, plus a bit of patch painting to cover up a bad job of a graffito from a picture of a another Loadhaul wagon. I made it too big, and blotched the lines, so it had to go. The replacement was a lot easier

I haven't recoded this one as an MKA since the prototype was still coded ZKA when the picture was taken (2004 IIRC) which is in-period for Whitemarsh.

That's about it for limpets at the moment, I do have a couple more but I think I need to see something else for a while having done five without much of a break! They do make a nice rake though, they're surprisingly massy and satisfying for four-wheelers. Next might be a Loadhaul shark, which I want to run with these to relieve the "odd one out" effect of the single orange and black limpet.