Early Wessex Trains Units

[lapford34102]

Hi,

Most people who know me are aware I've got a soft spot for Western region units, ancient and modern. So done purely for my own amusement a Hornby 153 done up as an early Wessex Trains one in RR livery with WT stickers.

Weathering is rather OTT – I don’t recall ever seeing one this manky – it’s a bit of an experiment for me using some of the tricks that to emphasise weathering that seem de-rigueur for the AFV modelling brigade. Not sure if it actually works but it was fun to do and judging by the phot’s needs a bit more dry brushing on the underframe.

Basically the RR logo's and unit numbers were removed and replaced with numbers from the HMRS "Rail Blue" Pressfix sheet homand emade WT vinyls, courtesy of info from our own resident Wessex Trains expert GloriousNSE, thanks Martyn.

I did the body and chassis separately and went as far as removing the glazing. I've had problems with glazing "crazing" when weathering before The body shell was then liberally dosed with thinned oil paint, a mix of Payne's Grey and Burnt Umber and allowed to dry. A fairly soft flattie brush loaded with thinners was then used to take most of it back off again with help from some wodged up kitchen towel. Further washes of enamel dark earth and matt black the end detail followed, again largely removed when dry. Some additional "colour" on the corridor connections to make each side look a bit different. (can someone who knows explain that one please - are the left and right sides just different sides of the same material).Finally a light dark earth dusting to tone it all down a bit and the distinctive sooty blacks around the exhaust and above the corridor connections.

The chassis is simply heavilny weathered in dark earth with a bit of black thrown in. I did do the exhaust in rust though before as it is quite noticeable in pics. Finally some dry brushing on the chassis in light grey to "pull" some of the detail but this isn't as obvious in the pics as I expected. I've underdone something

 

Slightly more conventionaly weathered and more or less OOB a Great Scenic Railways one

 

 

The question now is whether I have a go at a red one or hope either Hornby or a commisioned one appears.

Cheers and thanks for looking,

Stu

[Pete Harvey]

Very nice weathering Stu.

 

Pete

[Oldfield_Park]

A little OTT (for the privatised era, less so for BR - I certainly saw several in a similar state circa mid-1990s) it may be, but it's still very impressive. I can just imagine it being used on one of the Cornish branch lines outside of the summer season, when there wouldn't be too many passengers to worry about.

[lapford34102]

I certainly saw several in a similar state circa mid-1990s

 

That's re-assuring. Photo's of units either late RR or early days of Wales and West seem fairly thin on the ground but those I've seen of units in the early days of the TOC's do look reasonably well looked after.

Anyhow the idea was to do something a bit different so appreciate the comments.

 

Cheers

Stu

[lapford34102]

Hi,

It’s been a couple of months since this was updated partly due to the usual August diversions and partly due to deciding to wait to get the right colour, i.e. Precision’s Northern Purple.

Whilst waiting some work has been done on a RR liveried one to turn it into one of those unit that carried Wessex branding. Done using the same method as the 153 it’s a comparatively simple exercise just needing a change of identity and the Wessex logos though I’m left with a nagging suspicion I’ve overlooked something. Apologies for the photos but by the time I got round to doing some the light had gone.

I wasn’t convinced by the colour I had used on the purple 150 so decided to wait until I could get the Precision colour. I’m glad I did because the one I had used was nowhere near. I’m not sure anyone knows what the correct shade is but Northern’s purple seems an excellent match.

Still a lot to do such as touching up and sorting out the livery details as well as sorting out the roof. The NRN pod has a conduit connection which the Wessex ones don’t appear to have. Also had to lose the lovely etched exhaust covers on both units as these don’t appear to be present either.

The decals are ready thanks to Martyn’s efforts. He deserves a great deal of credit for all the time and trouble he’s taken to record the all the various graphics the units carried for posterity. The required bits will need cutting from the image but that’s not a big problem.

 

Hopefully progress soon but at the moment it’s sharing the workbench with a Heljan D65XX and a P-39D Airacobra...............

Stu

[justin1985]

I've only just discovered this thread, but to me the weathering looks perfect! I certainly remember seeing Regional liveried 153s looking at least as dirty as that in service with Anglia in the early 2000s!