Bryn

Thanks Steve, The inside of the wagons are light rust enamel washes covered in powder. Catfish didn't have hydraulic buffers so wouldn't have the usual chrome finish on the cylinder rams. Also it doesn't stand out that the bottom of the axle boxes are black, I might give them a touch of gloss varnish to make them more noticeable, but I do agree the springs are much to clean! As for the Sealion, I fitted the wrong style of buffers all those years ago and maybe silver rams might be a nice compromise to give the look of the OLEO design. I've yet to weather this, but the bogies should hopefully tone down a shade once the powders go on. Bryn

A Stephen Harris etch of a Catfish was given set of transfer and weathered this week. Here we see the first etched kit I ever made, around 15 years ago I assembled this old N Guage Society Sealion brass etch kit totally with super glue. It's been surprising durable and has held together, part finished in my stock box ever since. I've added some association bogies and given it a lick of paint, I'm happy it's come out reasonably well.

Recently painted plate wagon from a Stephen Harris nickle silver etched kit. Click here for full range of kits. The kit was built as per the instructions and the finishing process is as follows; - Grey self etching primer - Acrylic base colours (dark brown chassis, light grey body, light brown floor - Oil paint washes in thinner washes - Clear gloss acrylic as base for transfers - Transfers - Clear gloss acrylic to seal in transfers - Clear matt Dullcote - Dark grey enamel wash all over - Various weathering powders - Clear matt Dullcote

David, From your experience so far, have you found a preferable chuck rpm when taking these light cuts?

Great work Tim, the overall use of colour really does work well in bringing the scene together.

I'm having a day operating the layout to work out any issues caused by ballasting and track weathering, I took a quick shot when the sun was low this morning over the horizon. I've also reactivated the blog to keep track of progress;

Thanks Nick, if you have any stories or photos from this era I would always be interested.

I've been experimenting with backscene materials, I finally decided on use of 3mm PVC foamboard. Unlike wood this has a very smooth finish and takes spray paint well, this was glued to the wooden frame with contact adhesive and kept it's subtle curves. Track weathering was carried out with a dark brown powder pigment applied to each rail side, this was then faded in with a broad fan brush. Once happy this, along with the road/yard weathering was sealed with a matt varnish. Fish plates were picked out with black powders to simulate grease. Experimentation now starts with tree placement.

A few shots of the recent progress with the layout. Once the sculpimold has set I next give the ground a light pass of short straw static grass, then a second layer of 2mm dead grass. The back scene arrived, this is a 3mm thick sheet of PVC foam board, it takes paint well and is self supporting. Scrub bushes added with simple PVA Seamfoam trees. The trunks were thickened up using builders caulk and grounded foam for leaves. A quick pass of weathering powders to tone down the yard and roads.

Top hat bearings and brass pins are my suggestion, many years service so far!

Three years on and history repeats itself as Colwyn Bay Goods returns to Tutbury village hall for The 2mm Association's supermeet. My thanks to John Aldrick for the invite and to everyone else involved with putting on another enjoyable show. Work has been quietly progressing in the background since the layouts previous outing and below is a quick summary. - Set up at Tutbury with temporary foamboard fiddle yard wall clamped in place. The largest leap in progress has been the installation and wiring of the fiddle yard track. This used the 2mm Association's pegged turnout kits operated via Cobalt DCC point motors directly connected to the plastic tie bars provided in the kit. All nice and simple to aid reliability. Next came the first scenic feature to be added to the layout. The yard concrete pads were created using Woodland Scenic's road system called Smooth-It. This plaster style mix was applied between a balsawood frame superglued to the baseboard to contain the liquid mess until it dried hard ready for final sanding. Much procrastination was brought to a sharp stop when ballasting was finally undertaken. This used Tremendous Earth products after the larger parts were graded out, then fixed down with a diluted matt PVA solution. The plywood backscene was dusted off and after many years was screwed into place. A temporary paper sky was added to gauge the radius required for the final installation. Also of note, the extruded polystyrene embankments are seen taking shape in the background. To produce the iconic tunnel portal a heavily kit based Peco moulding was combined with my own brick arch etch. And finally, this week, the sculpamould has be applied to the extruded foam.

A quick snap of Colwyn Bay Goods, work in progress.

Impressive work as usual, I'm always inspired by your weathering! I might have to treat myself to a 40 now.

Great work as usual!

I'll have you know I'm VERY efficient at updating my blog... I'm just very inefficient at producing models to blog about.