James Makin's Workbench - 1990s dirty diesels & grotty wagons

[rob D2]

Very nice James !

I hope you weren’t playing “ destroy everything you touch “, albeit a good tune 
 

 

[EWS60065]

Those limpets look fantastic, the faded black and bright rust patches makes them very iconic. I admire your neat spring cutting skills too! 

Edited August 15, 2022 by EWS60065

[TRAILRAGE]

On 04/07/2019 at 19:37, James Makin said:

Hi all,

 

I'm finally allowed to show off the commission project that I was beavering away on earlier this year!

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

It's of course another Electrostar, this time in the funky livery of Great Western Railway!

 

Some of the marketing team at GWR approached me at the start of the year...could I build them a working display model Class 387 Electrostar to be used in advertising campaigns...in just 2 months!

 

Having made all the resin cabs and spent years scratchbuilding the things, they are kind of 'my bag' so while I never normally do commissions and certainly not quick ones to short deadlines, this project sounded a little different and I was damned if anyone else was going to build it for GWR instead!!

 

So I set to work digging out my zillions of Electrostar pics from last year's Didcot trip and set to work...

 

GWR 387145 at Didcot Parkway 12.08.18 by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

The basis of the project was a Bachmann Class 168 'Clubman' and spare vehicle, converted into a centre car with some butchery and good use of spares from my previous two Electrostar projects...

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

I had my resin Electrostar cabs and pantograph wells all ready to go, and it was pretty quick work getting these all done so that painting could commence...barely a couple of days between sanding down the model to this stage, compared to the glacial pace of my usual projects!

 

Part of the fast & dirty specification from GWR was that they didn't require the correct new style window glazing, or the shorter 20m body shells, nor bespoke underframe equipment to be replicated, this was merely a display model for advertising purposes. This saved an enormous chunk of time not shortening the vehicles, on what's by far the most lengthy (pun intended!) part of the project.

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

Big thanks go to good friend Mike Buick (Scoobyra of this parish as most of you will know!) for his quick crash course on GWR colours...my idea of Great Western is 'Merlin' or 'Fag Packet' colours rather than this dangerously new colour scheme! It's quite a dark livery but the photos make it look a lot brighter, and the yellow ends make it 'pop' fortunately! Transfers used are from the superb Railtec range, being the ones originally intended for the Mk3 coaches. 

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

Soon enough it all came together, the main challenges being the interesting matt & gloss finish on the model for which this livery is famous for, and of course leads to no end of controversy on the Hornby threads about how they've tackled it!

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

On mine I've gone for glossy bodysides but the rest of the vehicle roof is matt, along with the diagonal swooshes, it looks alright in the end but I did have reservations throughout the project..I've never finished a glossy vehicle and called it 'complete' before!!

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

The contrast between the matt and gloss can be seen pretty well here...

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

The pantograph was a robust rudimentary affair, it's a Lima Class 92 'pan' stuck down into place, the brief from GWR was that it had to raise and lower, so this is different from my previous 'Electrostars' which just have cosmetic Hornby 92 pantographs permanently glued in the lowered position.

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

And there we go, in less than 2 months from first contact to completion, it was ready to be packaged up to go off to the lovely chaps at GWR for its new life as a media star! This stage felt very strange to me, as I rarely ever do work for anyone else (barring the odd mate's favours) as naturally you grow quite attached to it during the building stage, so to see it fly the nest is a little sad! I didn't have time to run it on Worthing MRC's Loftus Road but it would've fitted in quite nicely I think!

 

Then a rather extortionate amount of money was paid for fully insured courier by TNT followed by an anxious wait for it's arrival to be confirmed, and then time to sit back and wait to see what happened to it! There was a delay as it was originally to be unveiled on a mini-layout at the GWR Long Rock Open Day, but this didn't happen, until the other day when I got a message saying it's been featured in it's first Facebook video!

 

GWR 387 Electrostar by James Makin by James Makin, on Flickr

 

The video can be found here if anyone is interested, from about 1 min 20 secs onwards...it gets picked up by the presenter! I believe there are other plans for it in the pipeline, especially as you can't really see it from the distance it is currently! 

 

 

So overall, it was rather fun, quite pressured but pretty enjoyable and modelling something very much newer than my normal timelines, plus a nice cash bonus at the end to help pay for some of the new Accurascale releases coming out later in the year!!

 

Going back to the late '90s soon...my big batch of locos are going to be airbrush weathered this weekend so it won't be long before I've some juicy diesel updates to share...catch you soon!

 

Cheers,

James

 

 

 

 

I always seem to find myself reading back through your pages for a bit of inspiration. The GWR 387 is Amazing. But I have to ask What paint did you use as there doesn't appear to be any commercially available made GWR Paint. Was it mixed for the Job or did some get supplied for the conversion?

 

Thank you for the hard work you put up on here for us to drool over!

 

Cheers Trailrage. 

[James Makin]

13 hours ago, TRAILRAGE said:

I always seem to find myself reading back through your pages for a bit of inspiration. The GWR 387 is Amazing. But I have to ask What paint did you use as there doesn't appear to be any commercially available made GWR Paint. Was it mixed for the Job or did some get supplied for the conversion?

 

Thank you for the hard work you put up on here for us to drool over!

 

Cheers Trailrage. 

 

Thanks ever so much! The GWR 387 was an interesting one to work on! It was a change from my usual style where the client didn't want 100% accuracy but wanted 100% speed!

 

I remember the paint issue well, I did a lot of looking around at what others had done on their own GWR HSTs and Turbos etc but in the end opted for Phoenix Paint's Great Western Trains Green from the original 1996 Merlin livery, which is slightly lighter than today's shade of "GWR Green".

 

One thing that tipped the balance away from creating a custom dark paint mix was knowing that during a such a big masking project that there would inevitably be final touch-ups required during the finishing stage, so to have a pre-mixed colour available by the bucket load tipped the balance! I wonder whether with colour-scaling that it helps it look more reasonable, though it would be interesting what it'd look like painting a full-size Electrostar in that shade and seeing how much lighter it'd look! 😄

 

Cheers,

James 

 

 

[WCML100]

On 29/06/2015 at 17:11, James Makin said:

Make way for something small and red!

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I should probably introduce these - this is the start of my new ballast train project. As touched on before, I'm modelling a train I'd seen passing slowly through Didcot on one of my Sunday afternoon jaunts in the early 2000s.

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The two MTAs 395040 and 395065 are based on the Bachmann model and part of a batch recently picked up on eBay. I'd planned to pug them away for a while but inspiration struck and I just decided to get them straight out for a play instead!

 

There is a 'history' with me and the MTA wagon..! Having seen that rake of them at Didcot all the years back, I decided to scratchbuild some, based on old Hornby TTA tank chassis with plasticard bodies. In hindsight, they weren't very good but they did help refine the modelling skills and were the subject of my very first modelling article - in DEMU Update magazine back in 2004.

 

When the Bachmann model subsequently arrived, I bought some and absolutely went to town - a side effect of the first scratchbuild project was pouring over dozens of detail pics and seeing all the details that Bachmann didn't add to the model. I'd done a few, including a 'Doorand' back in 2006, some of which were repeated in the earlier pages of this thread.

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The arrival of these minty-fresh red beauties meant going back and doing some more fiddling around to complement my existing fleet. The problem is, they do look very reasonable as they stand, but having done 'the works' on the old batch, the new ones really ought to match!

 

One of the fun parts is taking the soldering iron to the bodysides to replicate the familiar bulges on these wagons. I had a wave of nostalgia back to my time in 2006 while demonstrating on the stage at DEMU Showcase and stinking out the local crowd with plastic fumes bending then-brand new Limpets and MTAs!

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The key is to do this long and slow, and have a steel rule to hand - it is all too easy to deform the wagon and watch you don't end up with a banana shape! It used to be less pressure when wagons were £5 a go 'back-in-the-day' but things are different now!

 

Any slipups here and all you're left with is a donor chassis for a custom Doorand wagon haha!

 

Assuming the soldering goes well, there's a few extras which can be added underneath - there are two central beams running under the chassis, and some brake gear detailing that can be added in as well. There's a few holes to be opened out in the sideframes and the springs need changing, as detailed below. There is probably even more if you feel that way inclined!

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Now is also the perfect time to modify the suspension springs. As is well-publicised, Bachmann's model features the old leaf springs as on the older TTA and you really want the new style one. S Kits make some whitemetal parts, but I find it easier to chop around the existing Bachmann springs and get them looking a bit closer to the real thing - have a look at my version compared to the original RTR, it's still a compromise but it'll do for me!

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The next thing was the livery - new TOPS panels were created in CorelDraw with my custom numbers, and then the wagon was treated to coats of Humbrol 119, 62 and 186 - a sandy and rusty type effect, with application of the same on the inside of the wagon as well.

 

Both wagons also feature daubings - 395040 has faded graffiti while 395065 has a 'Flat' chalked on the side, presumably by an engineer referring to the wheelset rather than a graffiti artist named 'Flat'!

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

A scalpel was used to cut grooves into the bodyside, which were then highlighted with darker browns and greys. The end result should be a weather-beaten maroon with a rich variety of tones - it's seen plenty of action but there's plenty of life left ahead of it.

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Here's a quick pic of the underframe - the detailing has been covered over in my usual handpainted weathering -

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

MTA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

These were quite fun to work on! They will go to work behind an EWS '66' and be partnered with similarly-detailed MHA, MFA and MKA wagons, the majority of which are still tucked away in boxes for a rainy day.

 

I've still got more VGA wagons to come for the MOD train, but what a great little interlude!

 

Hi James, Sorry for digging up some other older bits but I am going to try the 'foil' method on various wagons myself in next few weeks, mostly high body side hoppers for the uneven upper panels and bulging sides etc. 

 

Any tips on what to do / not to do? or a short step by step of how / what you do? I have noted you mention a steel rule but can't figure out exactly what / how / why you utilise it? Don't want to ruin an expensive wagon or two! 

 

Any help would be much appreciated :) thanks

[James Makin]

15 hours ago, WCML100 said:

Hi James, Sorry for digging up some other older bits but I am going to try the 'foil' method on various wagons myself in next few weeks, mostly high body side hoppers for the uneven upper panels and bulging sides etc. 

 

Any tips on what to do / not to do? or a short step by step of how / what you do? I have noted you mention a steel rule but can't figure out exactly what / how / why you utilise it? Don't want to ruin an expensive wagon or two! 

 

Any help would be much appreciated :) thanks

 

It sounds like some fun to be had there!

 

The tin foil was my attempt at damage limitation for my poor soldering iron mainly! The correct type of iron to use is ideally one of those gas powered mini-blowtorches that you can get, but at the time I only had a conventional soldering iron to melt the plastic on the wagons. The tin foil prevents your tip becoming covered in melted plastic, though the downside is that most of the foil gets stuck into the plastic so the interior will need to be completely painted over afterwards.

 

The basic step by step was to get the wagon, and then line the inside with foil, and then hold the hot iron against the foil briefly until you feel the plastic warming to a pliable melting point, then use an implement (such as the steel rule, but can be anything, like pliers, tweezers, screwdriver) to then gently push out the part of the wagon you would like to bend, and then just keep repeating until satisfied!

 

It's important to take it super slow as applying too much heat onto the wagon can, from experience, can shrink and warp the plastic in unexpected ways! It could be worth trying the technique on any old bit of plastic to start (ice cream tubs are good) or even an old wagon just to get the knack of how your soldering iron behaves and what kind of heat/time it takes to start getting the plastic melty enough to play with! 

 

Another thing to do is to have a bit of track nearby to ensure that the wagon sits flat on all it's wheels, the little four-wheelers I've mainly done this to can be vulnerable if you bend the body enough to take on a slight twist or banana if not careful, meaning the wheels don't sit straight on the track, but can be avoided by regular checking and just going easy. 

 

Hope that gives a useful run through! It's a risky and slow process but one where if you have the patience to go super slow then the results can be well worthwhile!

 

Cheers,

James

[WCML100]

4 hours ago, James Makin said:

 

It sounds like some fun to be had there!

 

The tin foil was my attempt at damage limitation for my poor soldering iron mainly! The correct type of iron to use is ideally one of those gas powered mini-blowtorches that you can get, but at the time I only had a conventional soldering iron to melt the plastic on the wagons. The tin foil prevents your tip becoming covered in melted plastic, though the downside is that most of the foil gets stuck into the plastic so the interior will need to be completely painted over afterwards.

 

The basic step by step was to get the wagon, and then line the inside with foil, and then hold the hot iron against the foil briefly until you feel the plastic warming to a pliable melting point, then use an implement (such as the steel rule, but can be anything, like pliers, tweezers, screwdriver) to then gently push out the part of the wagon you would like to bend, and then just keep repeating until satisfied!

 

It's important to take it super slow as applying too much heat onto the wagon can, from experience, can shrink and warp the plastic in unexpected ways! It could be worth trying the technique on any old bit of plastic to start (ice cream tubs are good) or even an old wagon just to get the knack of how your soldering iron behaves and what kind of heat/time it takes to start getting the plastic melty enough to play with! 

 

Another thing to do is to have a bit of track nearby to ensure that the wagon sits flat on all it's wheels, the little four-wheelers I've mainly done this to can be vulnerable if you bend the body enough to take on a slight twist or banana if not careful, meaning the wheels don't sit straight on the track, but can be avoided by regular checking and just going easy. 

 

Hope that gives a useful run through! It's a risky and slow process but one where if you have the patience to go super slow then the results can be well worthwhile!

 

Cheers,

James

thanks James. Very helpful, will have a play around and see what i can cone up with! 
 

cheers 👍🏻

[James Makin]

A couple more vans have rolled off the workbench recently!

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Joining the fleet this time are VAA vans No. 200042 and 200155, both could be found on MoD traffic passing through Didcot around the turn of the century. 

 

The basis was a couple of secondhand Bachmann releases, picked up from a mate some years back -

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The liveries were interesting on this pairing, 200042 was in a hybrid livery of maroon sides with old Railfreight red ends, whilst 200155 had faded greeny sides with yellow ends. It was most interesting painting this one, I opted to use the rest of my tin of Phoenix's Govia Southern Green, left over from my first Electrostar project painted back in 2010!

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Each model was given a coat of gloss varnish to give a good surface for the decals to be applied, mostly sourced from Railtec. Amazingly the Railtec sheet actually had the matching TOPS panel for 200042, a happy freak accident, this kind of luck never normally happens!

 

After matt varnishing the decals and leaving the Railmatch matt varnish to harden for about a month, a start could be made on the weathering process.

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Both wagons were faded down with a white/light grey base colour of paint, painted on and wiped away to leave just a faded residue on the now-muted paintwork of each wagon, and armed with possibly the best-ever Eurovision song, work started on adding layers of browns to build up dirty deposits on the side of the wagon - shades of Humbrol 186, 113 and 251 were useful here.

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Each brown paint layer is applied, almost neat in some cases, then wiped vertically downwards with kitchen towel, and then run over the top with a cotton bud, dipped in enamel thinners, removing almost all of the paint layer except in the grooves and recesses of the wagon, where the dirt would gather in real life, following prototype pictures at each stage. 

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

One of the notable features is the rooftops of these box vans gets absolutely ruined in almost all of the prototype pictures I've seen, so it seemed natural to wreck the models too..!

 

Firstly, the base roof colour is painted, in the case of these two, a light grey shade, which then had dark grey rib bands painted across, to represent the panel joins seen prominently on top of these wagons in their degraded state. 

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

In the photo above, the upper wagon is further along the weathering process than the lower one, and you can see where numerous shades of varying grey colours have been layered on, mottled on and drybrushed, building up the layers and taking note of what each prototype looks like before getting going. It helps to have a mix of brushes for this stage, some really large scratchy brushes are ideal for the drybrushing side, whilst fine pin-point 5/0 brushes help with the precision parts of matching up damages to the real life photos. 

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

It wouldn't be a good van project without some talcum powder! I love adding just a tiny bit into proceedings as it brings a small amount of texture and also helps to fade some of the roof and blend the mix of wet grey paints together, as long as it's used sparingly. Having layered all this on, the last touches for the rooves are to add any rust spots or damages, before moving on.

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

VAA 200155 was great fun to do, the lightly-coloured wagon showing up all the damages and marks of the prototype, which were applied using another 5/0 paintbrush, very carefully following each reference picture to get the right damage and mark in the right place. Little details such as the torn MoD explosives diamonds were painted on, and each bolt hole picked out in line with the real thing. 

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Meanwhile, VAA 200042 was a much more subdued affair, the drab maroon sides were fairly recently applied in my modelling time period, so had minimal weathering to replicate beyond a slight fade, and damage on the older, patchy Railfreight red ends. Stainless steel brake discs were added from the former Colin Craig range by Wills Workbench, glued to the wheels with PVA and later given a paint-on/wipe-off finish to dull down the bright steel finish slightly. 

 

All that remained was to paint the chassis, a mix of Phoenix track colour, gunmental grey and random splodges of browns, to build up the shades, before giving the models an overall coating of matt varnish to complete.

 

VAA Vans by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

It's always great fun to work on new wagon projects and once again the little Speedlink-era box vans give plenty of variety, and the wagons are now ready for their new life on MoD trains on both Worthing MRC's Loftus Road and on my own upcoming Didcot Parkway. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by James Makin
.

[The Fatadder]

Very nice wagons, making me think that repainting / rebranding the handful I still have will be a good idea for a project over the next few months to make a start on my eclipse water train...

 

The green one is particularly impressive 

[rob D2]

Great work James, especially on the roof areas ! Really good that .

[WCML100]

top work as always. you could make a living out of making custom stuff like this I reckon...

[Afroal05]

Inspiring stuff James! I've spent the last few nights catching up on your mammoth year of weathering and it is just exquisite. Makes me keen to get back to the workbench.

An artist and a craftsman!

 

Al

[Jim Martin]

More great work on those vans! Do you know why 200155 was painted green in the first place?

 

Jim

[Steadfast]

1 hour ago, Jim Martin said:

More great work on those vans! Do you know why 200155 was painted green in the first place?

 

Jim

I would put good money on it being a Railfreight Distribution livery van, dark grey with yellow ends. Some other wagons (like OCAs) got the same. The grey faded to a greeny shade on lots of wagons.

 

Edit, just found this on Paul Bartlett's site. Case closed,  m'lud.

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvaa/h4fd532f

 

Jo

Edited September 15, 2022 by Steadfast

[James Makin]

Great find on the original green image Jo!

 

It’s amazing how they weather over time, to bring it full circle I’m attaching the 1999-dated reference pic for 200155, borrowed from Gareth Bayer’s superb and much-missed Wagons on the Web page -

 

 

Got to love the state that these wagons got into, and a big thanks to Gareth for recording this and many others before they met their end - at the time my rubbishy kids snappy camera was mainly aimed at whizzy HSTs 🤣

 

Cheers,

James

[WCML100]

Hi James (sorry to bother you - Again!) 

 

Wanted to pick your brains on your eledctorstar projects of the past...

 

I am starting a project to create a chiltern 172, using a bachy 170 as a starting point, will need to change the bogies over to the voyager style ones. But will also need to change the ribbon / bonded style glazing to the gasket style found on the newer units of the turbo / electro star families. Have you done this to any of your electrostar projects yet? Hoping there is a brass kit out there somewhere - I can only only hope!

 

thanks

[James Makin]

16 hours ago, WCML100 said:

Hi James (sorry to bother you - Again!) 

 

Wanted to pick your brains on your eledctorstar projects of the past...

 

I am starting a project to create a chiltern 172, using a bachy 170 as a starting point, will need to change the bogies over to the voyager style ones. But will also need to change the ribbon / bonded style glazing to the gasket style found on the newer units of the turbo / electro star families. Have you done this to any of your electrostar projects yet? Hoping there is a brass kit out there somewhere - I can only only hope!

 

thanks

 

Thanks, no worries!

 

I've only attempted the early ribbon-glazed version of the Electrostars myself (I will not need to be building any more I am sure!) but I did once get sent a photo that one customer of my kits had sent of a 172 conversion they'd made with etched brass window side panels, I can't remember any further details than that as it was many years ago but out there somewhere, someone has done window frames!

 

Hope that kind of helps in some way, and good luck on the search!

 

Cheers,

James

 

 

[MoonM]

On 12/08/2022 at 17:19, James Makin said:

That would be a fun idea sometime! Right now I feel a bit of a beginner in that area, it all looks a bit daunting presenting the stuff for filming and then working out how people do the post production editing to make it watchable, seems like witchcraft! 
 

I guess practice makes perfect, my fear is just running off a load of cheesy Alan Partridge-esque videos 😂
 

Cheers,

James

Any Alan Partridge similarity would just add to the experience. Could try a mouldy 'raspberry' and film and overlay music /sound only? I imagine that the more you do the better accustomed you become - much like the weathering! 

[James Makin]

Inbetween tinkering with various shiny-shiny Accurascale goodies lately, I've also been tackling some more of the Bachmann VBA wagons to add to the growing trainload to appear on both my layouts and on Worthing MRC's Loftus Road. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The VBAs are great fodder for tarting up, with used examples often found fairly cheap at shows in the sub-£15 bracket, with a bit of paint and weathering, they can soon turn into a useful wagon for many a layout. 

 

Alongside many of the older liveries, I had a requirement for a few EWS versions to balance out the hotchpotch of Railfreight variants, so three EWS VBAs were put through the works to expand the existing train.

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Some years back, Bachmann produced the EWS version, and all that needed to be changed was some careful renumbering to examples that carried the same livery, albeit with variations accounted for in different electrification flash and data panel positioning. Some examples also exhibit different placements of the EWS gold stripes too, so it's worth scanning Flickr and Smugmug for chosen examples before starting work.

 

The wagons had the old number printing scratched away carefully with a curve-bladed scalpel, before being gloss varnished with Railmatch aerosol varnish prior to application of new decals, and a top coat of Railmatch matt varnish, left for a month to harden.

 

Also tackled at the same time is a piece of extra styrene strip added to replicate the sliding door mechanism that some examples have too, the strip just secured to the body with poly-cement. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The weathering fun could begin! The major benefit of the matt varnish layer over the factory plastic is that when it comes to the paint-on/wipe-off finishes, the varnish layer acts as a key to really cling onto the faded wash of light grey paint that's been run over the top of it to mute the bright EWS maroon. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Having allowed a few more days to pass for the last coat to harden, a new layer of brown was added on over the top, with the recommended soundtrack of HAIM to accompany the dirtying process. Here I've gone for an almost-neat version of the Humbrol 113 dark brown, which is soon wiped away with a kitchen towel and some cotton buds, working quickly to prevent it drying on the model itself. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

For the rooftops, even though the EWS livery was freshly painted in my late '90s time period, it seems that the roof sections didn't always receive the same treatment, with many either untouched or weathering quickly with the maroon paint flaking away to the under layers of the roof. In line with the VAA models tackled recently, the roof panel lines were masked off and painted, before the rest of the roof was drybrushed and stippled with a variety of greys and browns to build up a weathered roof, following prototype pictures of the EWS vans for guidance. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

After this, it was time to move onto the underframe areas. The whole underneath has been painted with Phoenix Track Dirt, with touched in areas of medium and dark browns, and some greys for oily deposits and a final drybrush with gunmetal paint to bring out some of the hard edges on the underframes.

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Little details such as the buffer shanks were picked out in silver, the handrails and brake handles in white paint, and axleboxes matched to the colour seen in the prototype pics for each respective wagon modelled. The wheels were painted dark grey and Colin Craig/Wills Workbench brake discs added on each wheel face, also having received a paint-on/wipe-off treatment of their own to highlight the detail. 

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The VBAs proved a great fun little project, though there was fairly limited scope for modelling any particularly distressed variants, each one has turned out slightly differently and matches up to the pics found online of the respective van. For those modelling more into the later 2000s period, the wagons then started to bleach heavily and lose their maroon, revealing grey undercoat - now that would be fun to model!

 

VAA wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

It occurred to me that just three maroon vans, modelled in relatively good condition don't make for the most exciting of RMWeb posts, so as a Brucey bonus here is a chonky old matching '37' thrown in for good measure!

 

37717 and VAAs by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Hope you enjoy! I'm just recovering from having taken Worthing MRC's Loftus Road out to our first show since before the pandemic but modelling will re-start in earnest again shortly, and there are some interesting things currently on the workbench which will be much more exciting to debut I must admit!

 

Cheers,

James

 

[billywhizz]

Hi James. 
thanks for sharing another great weathering article. 
Out of interest, on the Bachmann VBA etc do you doing anything with the swiveling axle units on your wagons to improve running?

 

Regards,

Bill. 

[James Makin]

On 07/10/2022 at 11:31, billywhizz said:

Hi James. 
thanks for sharing another great weathering article. 
Out of interest, on the Bachmann VBA etc do you doing anything with the swiveling axle units on your wagons to improve running?

 

Regards,

Bill. 

Hi Bill,

 

Thanks very much! I must’ve been lucky so far but have never needed to modify the underframes on any of these Bachmann long wheelbase wagons, whether it’s the vans or the equivalent OBAs/OCAs etc too, they are amongst the most reliable wagons running on our Loftus Road, when all else fails, they get brought out! 😂

 

The only similar wagons I’ve had trouble with are the old FTG Models/DJM/Kernow ‘SPA’ wagons, I just can’t get them to run well, a combination of gluing up the axle units, adding weight and changing wheels & couplings didn’t work, so I’ve ended up fitting Bachmann axlebox units to help get them running decently! Add in the clunky underframe moulding too and in hindsight it would’ve been far easier to just build the Cambrian kits for those..!

 

Cheers,

James

[James Makin]

The other week we took our club layout, Worthing MRC's Loftus Road out to our annual show, the first exhibition outing since March 2020, and I managed to grab a few shots of some stock featured within these pages, starting to earn its keep!

 

Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

37799 Sir Dyfed/County of Dyfed in Transrail was one of my 2019-batch locos, so never really got to run much in the final show season before the lockdown, and so it was great to dig it out and get it working at the head of the manky OBA/OCA rake!

 

Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The labour-of-love 'Electrostars' were out in action too, the first Southern 377/2, along with my First Capital Connect 377/5 (not pictured). Due to the age of them, they are actually starting to warp & fall apart in some places and will need a slight rebuild to get them back to their as-built condition! Alarmingly, my '377' models are now a fair bit older than some of the audience that loudly beg for them to be run out from the fiddle yard onto layout, madness..!

 

Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

The period Silverlink purple & lime green still stands out, all these years on!

 

Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Newbie 37013 in Mainline blue from the 2021-batch of locos made its debut too, taking a turn on a short rake of 'Limpet' spoil wagons, and fortunately turned out to be a really good performer over the weekend, though shakedown of a few of its new sister locos revealed some slight running & lighting issues which will need careful rectification in the coming months.

 

Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr

 

Overall, it was a great fun weekend out with the gang, good to play trains again, and it's whet my appetite further to progress with my Didcot Parkway layout and hopefully get some track laid in the not-too-distant future!

 

Cheers,

James

[QuoitsPlayer]

Looks great James 👍 Is Loftus Road complete now? 

[James Makin]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:17, QuoitsPlayer said:

Looks great James 👍 Is Loftus Road complete now? 

Thanks! After 17 years of working on Loftus now we’re more or less complete, but it’s always fun to add little details here and there! 
 

We're just getting back into the swing of things after an almost 2-year break of doing anything on the layout and it’s still a challenge trying to get fully back into the groove as I’m sure many clubs are experiencing too, but I’m sure we’ll get there!

 

Meanwhile as a group we are all getting older and thoughts are turning to what’s next, especially with the clubroom being situated on the first floor upstairs, the concept of a smaller, lighter project does seem particularly appealing on those dark Sunday evenings spent lugging the heavy old beast back up a wet staircase after a show 😂

 

Cheers,

James

[QuoitsPlayer]

1 hour ago, James Makin said:

Thanks! After 17 years of working on Loftus now we’re more or less complete, but it’s always fun to add little details here and there! 

 

I didnt realise it was that old, it still feels really modern and contemporary even though it's 15 years since Silverlink's franchise ended.