WCML100

These look the dogs dangly bits mate! Top job! That reminds me to finish off my first OCA rework…

If you ask me both the PEP and electrostars are ripe for a manufacturer to take the plunge. As others have said, surely only a matter of time? Both have a wide range of liveries and variations which appeal to Accurascale! Ally Pally is around the corner, perfect announcement opportunity?

Sorry I wasn't exactly clear in what I meant but yes, thats exactly what i meant :)

Looking forward to the layout coming to life! Certainly will provide an interesting experience to see this in action! Will you be getting a Bachmann turbo and converting it to a 165? Would be great to see a two car unit gracing the branch!

Thanks very much! Im pretty happy with it fro my first go at a large commercial vehicle! Thanks, more to come and a long way to go, but steps in the right direction for sure. I feel like not everyone plans out exactly where the non railway features go but when modelling from a real location where you are compromising on space in places to fit everything in - it is key to getting everything to 'look right in the eye'. I have not seen the 230 in person yet, although when I have time I will be going to check it out at some point!

Im looking forward to these arriving and if any go spare I may be tempted by one for my MOD workings through Greenford. However as mentioned previously it would be great if Accurascale could get their hands on the warwell and add the end covers to the tooling suite for future runs! (Appreciate it was too late to be considered this time around!)

Looking forward to my EWS example arriving! Another maroon shed to add to the Greenford fleet!

So next off the work bench is another vehicle! You may have noticed it lurking in the pictures in a recent post! It is this Scania 94D rigid in TNT livery, by Oxford Diecast. It starts out of the box as a standard issue so plenty of work to be done to bring it in line with the standard previously set by the Ford Transit previously attempted. First everything was dismantled and given a good coat of Railmatch Matt Varnish to tone everything shiny down, and give the weathering something to cling to! The glazing wouldn't budge and I didn't fancy breaking it so masked up instead! I gave the roof a coat of off white paint as per photos of similar lorry’s I found. This looked miles better than the shiny unrealistic silver finish previously. Next up was the fun part! As per the Ford Transit previously attacked, some Ammo wash was used to get into all of the panel lines and grooves etc. This was done on all of the curtain-sides and cab. Once painted on, it was taken back with IPA and cotton buds. This not only takes the glaring contrast away but dulls the remaining areas right down too. I also took this opportunities to use some 'dirtied' cotton buds which still had a good amount of IPA as well as the wash on to streak across and create the streaking across the roof. Again something I had found on numerous lorry roofs during research. Last but not least was details. I painted up the dash in the interior to give it a dark grey plastic appearance, again as per the generic appeal most cabs have. I added a cut down driver, and some typical lorry driver accessories on the passenger seat with the list of the days job on the dashboard! These were all used again from the same sheet of ‘Litter’ made by modelrailwayscenery.com - great not just for using as litter! I also painted up the wing mirrors too with the same silver used on the Ford Transit. All in all a quick, easy and fun little project! Great to add realism to the road scene when we get to that point as it is now ‘ready to plonk’! It certainly an easy way to transform an out of the box item to ‘model worthy’. As Greenford is quite an industrial area, it certainly won’t be the last of the commercial vehicles to be re worked for the layout! That’s all for now. More on the way soon!

Thought I would repost an image so everyone could see here... These are looking seriously good. Dapol's best wagon to date? it is certainly up there. The Hanson variant may just have to make an appearance on Greenford!

Is that a barbie 90 hiding there? Cor would I love Bachmann to bring one out in that livery!

This was always going to be a tricky subject. I always thought that Bachmann simply used BR maroon and not West Coast Maroon in their MK2A’s (the colour on their forthcoming MK1’s will be interesting when they arrive, I assume they will be the same as used on the MK2A’s from pictures they have shared), where as the Accura examples have always been lighter on the pre production samples than the Bachmann so not a surprise there. The Accurascale shade is definitely closer to the actual real life colour in my opinion, but arguably where they retain the ‘redness’ much better than the Bachmann offering, they may be slightly too light in reality. However I will reserve my judgement for when I see these in person as the way the light hits these really does affect the appearance. The real things varied a lot anyways, weathering differently into various shades - meaning they probably would not look out of place next to each other in a rake if roofs were weathered and some grime here and there - even the logo positions and sizes do vary slightly depending on the coach.

thanks! I quite like it! The more I look at it, the more I think the outer edge is too thick so may re do it at some point! I have attached the original post below on how I made it up in case it is of interest 🙂

That sounds about right for the area! Don't worry we will be including plenty of fly tipped fridges on the layout! As well washing machines etc, and some lost shopping trolleys for good measure!

So following on from the newly finished Ford Transit, we thought it was about time to start marking out the road and how this will fit into the plan of the boards. We have two roads passing under the railway (Greenford Road and Oldfield Road North) - these are linked in front of the railway by Rockware Avenue which also features bus stops and traffic lights. Here we have the junction between Greenford road and Rockware avenue - this is a multi-lane cross roads controlled by traffic lights. As we move on to Rockware avenue, we have an industrial unit which is fictional in place of a small office unit which is situated here in real life. We chose this to best help set the scene for this part of West London… note the DR5000 is only temporarily situated here, this area will be part of the bank up to the railway. Further along Rockware avenue we have two containers lock ups. The containers will be painted into various shades of green as per the prototypes, with security fencing around each one. Retaining walls made from caged rocks keep the embankment at bay and we look to mirror that in model form too. As we move along to the second set of container lock ups, the bus stops begin. These usually see the two terminating routes, the 105 and E6 on stand here between duties. Further up towards the of Rockware Avenue where it ends in a T junction with Oldfield Road North, is where the bus shelter sits with these routes in addition to the 92 which passes through here stopping to pick up passengers. As the temperature starts to increase, I am sure more work will be completed! Plenty of individual projects are coming to a close now too so hopefully more to show you in the coming days and weeks! Thanks for checking in 👍🏻

I think if accura focus on any other mk2's - the D's are the obvious candidate. Tooling is way out of date now and as others have said fits nicely in line with the B's and C's. It would also make sense for the E's to be done as well but I deffo think the D's are priority for modellers as ripe for picking next.

Great update! Will be interesting to see how the 158’s turn out! The Balfour beatty wagon will certainly be unique, and does look great! the MHA’s look fantastic too! Certainly need to start work on my accurascale ones too! Keep up the good work mate!

Thanks for the info Will! As you asked… (not that I haven’t pestered the guys on the stand at various shows over the last few years for the same…!) - Fastline debranded 56301 - ex fertis debranded 56103 - DCR Green 56303 - DCR Dark Grey 56312 thanks in advance 😅

Great to see 302 in colas livery announced! Any ideas on when the next full batch will be announced?

Just came across this thread. Very excited to see this progress - the final scene should really look the business!

Which I think in this day and age is a great price really... you pay £300 for a twin HST pack from Hornby alone. (not to mention their IEP prices...)

I reckon if Accurra have this up their sleeves (which I think they do!) - that is primed for announcement at ally pally surely? given its the Electrostars hunting ground...

Not one I need - but a great announcement which will definitely satisfy a fair few! It is great to finally see more Multiple units starting to hit the 00 gauge market!

Great to have you back - will be following with interest 👍🏻

Thanks - I feel the little bits like this make things feel less ‘toy’ like. It’s the small things that are usually missed or are over looked which make difference from ‘toy’ to ‘model’ in my opinion. There is more to come in this regard on a few other vehicle projects too!

So as mentioned in the previous post - over the winter months I have been slower progressing some of the bigger projects off the layout but also some small ‘side’ ones too… First out of the works is this Network Rail Ford Transit. I have based mine off a photo found on flickr of one around the time period of the layout. We start with the standard release of the Oxford Diecast Ford Transit high top with sliding door compartment. I have had a few of these stashed away for years and thought it was about time I re worked one for Greenford. What always bugged me about these were the awfully unrealistic printed on windows on the sliding doors. So modelling one without this window was a non-negotiable when starting out this little project. First, i removed the printed on windows with some acetone free nail varnish remover - These came off with ease on both sides. I then dismantled the van separating the chassis, interior and body. I then masked up the window (as the transit high top release seemed to not drop out like the other transits in the oxford range - this was fixed in place) ready for varnishing. Once a coat of Railmatch Matt Varnish had been applied, it was time to weather the body. I felt the best option was to use a wash to get into all the panels and joins etc. The colour of these, even over time didn't loose their ‘white’ colour too much but definitely lost their ‘shine’. So I wanted to capture that as much as possible. After this, IPA on the end of cotton buds were applied to take back the excess. With the wash attacking the joins and panel lines - the roof was up next. For this I used a brown-grey mix of enamel paints and dry brushed the roof panels. I also did a fade effect on the front roof panel above the windscreen too. One other small amendment was to paint metallic silver within the wing mirrors. This was slapped on quite lazily - then again taken back using IPA on a cotton bud, using the raised lipped edge to assist in the final tidy look. Whilst the outside was covered, the plastic one colour interior wasn’t hitting the spot for me either. To remedy this, i painted the bulkhead white as per the real thing - then the seats a mid grey with the dash a dark grey. Once all of that was dry - I added a cut to size scenecraft figure with a suitable high-vis jacket and hard hat. Once this was fixed into place, I added some clutter to the dash fit for any ‘workmans’ van. A crisp packet and newspaper were chosen for good measure. These were from the great little printed litter pack from modelrailwayscenery. It was all then given coat of matt varnish on the interior to seal it all in and then on the exterior too. Over all I am extremely happy with how this small project has turned out. It will sit on the access area opposite the signal box once scenery is finished. Very much looking forward to that moment! For now, here are some photos of the final product - I have also included a comparison to a second, unaltered release from Oxford diecast! There shall be a few more vehicles which have received this treatment featuring soon too, so stay tuned!