Knocking around the workbench is this vacuum fitted iron ore tippler - a more or less 'straight' build of the Parkside kit with some added detail. I'll spare you these details since similar things appear elsewhere on this blog and elsewhere on the forum, but the reference pictures are from Paul Bartlett. The prototypes started in iron ore traffic but moved on to stone in fairly short order and are best known for operating out of Merehead, while some of their unfitted sisters ended up working coal in south Wales by the early '70s.

The paint job might be of interest to someone,so here we go. These tipplers inevitably got rather battered and have all the same challenges of the 16 ton mineral, but without the doors. There are a number of characteristic weathering features of these particular boxes on wheels, notably the vertical streaks beneath the little triangular brackets at the top of the bodysides. This shot should show what I mean: http://paulbartlett....375ae#h3fb375ae. The look I'm going for is a wagon that's been in service for some time and due a repaint which the original 'Iron Ore Tippler' branding painted out and the word 'ORE VB' applied above the number. Irritatingly, I can only find colour shots showing similar treatment to unfitted wagons, via Flickr.

A coat of primer was followed up with a dark rust mix on the body and a coat of Humbrol 'chocolate' (no. 98) on the underframe. I'll need to go back and touch this up as the red oxide primer is still grinning through here and there, but that will be part of the weathering job. The body was then overlaid with a rather rough second coat to represent faded bauxite (a mix of Humbrol 113 and 100) with the body rusting at the seams. Part of the point of doing this was to replicate the distinctive weathering noted above. There should be a picture of the finished wagon here by rigths, but I seem to have neglected to take one. Next time I'm in Somerset... I think this brings the total in the boxes to 10 (most of the others are Bachmann slope sided British Steel types) Another five should make a reasonable train...

Adam