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The cab roof has now had some MIG Productions Black Smoke pigment brushed on to represent the build-up of grot ejected by the chimney/funnel, and random applications of the same pigment and Industrial City Dirt have been made to parts of the running plate. This locomotive is to be portrayed in a quarry environment, so a layer of dust is needed to reflect that. The Industrial City Dirt is also applied to areas of the wheels, steps and areas where crew's boots would take the stone dust.

Due personal reasons and some other modelling interest there is been some silence from around my modelling projects. I still have to paint some cars, but that have to wait. In a box I had a lot of OO gauge cars waiting for a project were one of them could be used. Some months ago, I found two cheap showcases. The cars moved from the box to the showcases. Now I noticed I had just bought cars from which I thought they could be useful. But I like to use them in my favourite way as historical elements in a diorama. I bought a small book called “Cars we loved in the 1950’s” from Giles Chapman. This book is my guide to build up a collection of 1950’s cars. For every car I did some background research. Very useful, because I discovered for instance that an Oxford model of a Morris Minor 1000 was to date in the early 1960’s due his colour. I also made cards for my models with the name of the car and the date of production, with a black and white advert of the car. Some adverts are Dutch. For instance, the BOVAG advert . I also started with a new building project. This time a small diorama with the pub from Petite Properties. A friend of me, a picture frame maker, helped me with the design of the base. The base is to be finished, when the pub is finished. I will build the pub using textures from Scalescenes, Internet and self-made textures. Progress is going slow, so you will have to wait a while before you can see the finished diorama. But for me the process of my modelling activities is just as important as the result. I want to thank everyone who is reading my blog. I appreciate the comments and support I have received this year. I want to wish all of you a good Christmas Holliday and a healthy New Year. Greetings, Job

One of my long standing 'round tuit' projects has been a Triang bogie luggage van that was given to me by the late Bob Haskins. As is the way, I was looking for something else in the modelling room when I came across a box containing a number of wagons he'd given me, some years ago now. I knew I'd picked up a detailing conversion pack for it from Roxey Mouldings at a bring and buy so I thought why not? I guess Bob had this coach from the early seventies and the Roxey kit was also in a suitably decrepit box but as you know I do like these resurrection projects. The instructions were comprehensive and luckily I already had the Gould book from Oakwood Press to provide background information. First step was to remove the green paint (I guess Bob applied) using Modelstrip. I decided not to reuse the existing doors. New ones were made from Evergreen planking sheets and straps added from strip with rivet detail added from cubes of 5mm square section. Handrails were added from 0.35mm wire. The under frame was made up on a base of copper clad, allowing it to be soldered together before bolting to the underside of the body. The bogies are sprung, using the Bill Bedford 8ft variants and the white metal side frames glued on. I used MJT LSWR/SR pattern ventilators as the ones in the Roxey kit had a little too much flash for my liking. Once the detailing had been complete, the coach was sprayed with Halfords plastic primer, Precision carmine airbrushed on and a light weathering coat added. The roof has a coat of Lifecolour roof dirt. I've attached a few photos including the finished article on Cheddar. My plan is to run it as a parcels/strawberry van. I've absolutely no idea if these vans ever ran on the Cheddar Valley line, but I don't care. I think Bob would have liked the end result and that's all that matters!

Reference to many photographs of working Pecketts has indicated that there are several areas where dirt seems to accumulate more than others. I have continued to apply the dark mix of frame dirt/weathered black to areas such as the leading edge and corner of the saddle tank, the upper corners of the coal bunker and the join between cab and tank. A simple waft was all that was needed, just to hint at the discolouration. I also applied a small amount of this same colour to the wheel centres and the coupling rod joints, to alter the monotone already applied.