EWS60065

@WCML100 Thanks for the compliments, good luck with doing all the MHAs at once - the I section ribs take quite a while to work paint into! 😅 As for the JNA my standard method is to give them a spray of track dirt particularly over the underframe and then wipe off all the ribs as well as white painted bits etc. They then receive a liberal coating of Vallejo oiled earth wash. I leave that for 5 mins to go tacky and then draw it downwards with a rough brush, creating the streaks. Obviously the interior has been completely repainted too. The layout is still very much in the early stages - it's going to be an LDC a bit like Westbury or Eastleigh (albeit smaller!). This will be somewhere I can house my long rakes of wagons and shunt them to form engineering trains that will leave the yard for possessions. Not sure whether to transform this thread or create a new one. @Bearwood West Yard Great close ups of the JNA, thanks for those. I wonder if using an old DIY brush in a similar fashion to your sponge method would work too. Either way I think it could look great if not overdone.

September Update Hi, not a massive amount of wagon stuff to show this month - other things have taken priority including making plans for the upcoming layout. Despite this, I've still found motivation to get on with a few projects. Bachmann Class 66 66701 I bet you were expecting a wagon but not this time! I have had this engine for a good few months in factory condition and have been meaning to do some work on it. The biggest improvement I needed to make was with the air dams. The ones supplied can only be fitted where NEM couplings aren't present, so my options were to buy a 3D printed replacement, or cut out a coupling slot in the supplied ones. With nothing to lose, I decided to give the second option a go. With the slots successfully cut, the air dams were superglued into their slots and Bachmann E-Z Mate Couplers installed. The two brake pipes were also attached but these have been truncated to avoid interference with the coupling. For me, this type of front end set up strikes the right balance between detail and practicality. Another small mod was to remove the shed plate above the lefthand headlight (I'm modelling 66701 after its name and shed plate were removed). The next stage was weathering, beginning with a throrough clean and masking up to avoid paint getting around the contacts. The windows were also masked to replicate the areas cleared by wipers. My standard airbrushing procedure for class 66s is a few light sprays of brown (track dirt) over the underframe which slightly oversprays on to the bodywork. This is followed by hand painted details such as oil patches, rusty exhaust silencer, and streaked grime on the roof. This is the result which I am pretty happy with - not overly heavy but enough dirt to look like a working locomotive. It's modelled in circa 2014 condition still retaining the old GBRf font. Accurascale Coalfish Three more MHAs have joined the fleet too, weathered similarly to my previous ones. Unfortunately I encountered a problem with my Accurascale MHAs while doing a test run with the whole rake assembled. There is too much vertical play in the NEM sockets so that the knuckle couplers are forced upwards when any tension is put on the train, this then causing them to uncouple. This doesn't at all take away from the wagons' excellence as it is a very specific problem with my setup. Here is my solution - insert a staple above the NEM socket to limit vertical movement. This fixes the uncoupling problem and once painted it shouldn't stand out. Dapol JNA Finally, yet another JNA Falcon has been weathered up and added to the fleet. Nothing much to say on this particular wagon. Thanks all for reading and I hope my recent projects have been inspiring to look at.

Good to hear, I've found some finishes very difficult to remove particularly older Bachmann stuff. Out of interest will you guys ever be doing a second batch of the 66s?

@WCML100 Sounds great, nice slow pulling away too. Couldn't help noticing the missing axleboxes, I have the same problem on my Hattons 66! Hopefully this will be rectified in Accurascale's version - speaking of which I'm looking at getting one in GBRf, only annoyance is the printed nameplate which will make renumbering difficult.

@Grizz https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1897 These any good? Difficult to find as they are under DB Schenker but they are just the DB logos on their own.

@WCML100 Yeah they're mine, to be fair our profile pictures are not dissimilar! @Grizz If you haven't checked it out already WCML100 does have some very nice work themself on Greenford and associated rolling stock

@WCML100Nice one, the Hattons 66s are great. I have the same model with Jamie Goodman sound.

Cheers, yeah I got a bottle of ready mixed wash to save time. Other colours like the white one I just mix myself as its not economical to buy a bottle.

@Steadfast Ah thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense

@Andy7Thanks Andy, what a coincidence you were photographing the real things at the same time! You say about the Railfreight but photos of the MXAs when they were new seem to show the solebars as being the same red as the body so a bit of a mystery as to why there is such a difference in the weathering.

Weathering Bachmann MXA 'Lobsters' As described in the previous post I have taken the plunge and applied some light weathering to my pair of Bachmann MXA wagons. The process was actually really enjoyable and a suprisingly small amount of work was required to improve the look of them. For others wishing to do the same I've compiled a brief step by step of my process. Engineers chalk markings read 'Ballast to Westbury' which sounded prototypical! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The first stage was to mask off the body and spray a track dirt colour through an airbrush over the frame. This quickly coats the bogies and trusses in dirt and also begins the fading process on the solebars. Wipe this off any white parts. 2. A distinctive feature of the Lobsters is the contrast between the highly faded solebars and bright red bodywork - not sure why they became like this. I drybrushed a light pink/orange shade along the length of the solebars being careful not to obscure any decals. 3. Whilst the drybrushing targets the centre of the solebar, the edges remain in luminescent red! This is where a wash comes in handy. I'm using Vallejo 'Oiled Earth' here - you can see the dirt buildup effect on the left. 4.The final stage of the underframe is to add some variation in colour on the framework. I usually use a rusty weathering powder lightly dusted in random places. 5. Moving on to the body, real life photos reveal a slightly milky appearance where the paint has faded. This is reproduced with a very watered down white wash. Brush over several panels at a time and spread around with a soft brush. Streak downwards to remove any unnatural brush marks. 6. As with the underframe, a dark wash is required around the panel edges. I added a bit of dark grey to the wash this time to create an even greater contrast against the red. This can be brushed over the panels when the white wash is fully dry. Leave the wagon on its side to dry so the wash doesn't move around. 7. The usual method is employed in order to weather the interior. For once it's nice that the factory interior colour on these wagons is suitable and doesn't need repainting! Load up an old brush with a shade a little lighter than the base colour of the interior. Use stippling motions to cover the whole of the inside. I repeated the process with an even lighter colour afterwards too. I added a few areas of overspill on the body sides with the same colours. That concludes the weathering process. As seen at the top, I added leftover ballast and chalk markings too for the ultimate engineers wagon look. Any questions or suggestions welcome.

@WCML100 Thanks for the kind words. I do want to model a few of the KFA types too as it will save time compared to Salmons but finding a cheap enough donor is the problem. The track carriers are available as a 3D print on ebay but I have been told to avoid them. If only Hattons did them individually! Another possible track carrier would be the FDAs from either Hornby or Bachmann FGA freightliner flats. With the MXAs that's what I thought too, much more common seeing even just one or two at the end of a consist compared to Falcons.

August Wagon Update Here are some of the projects I've been working on recently, a bit of a random mix this time. Cambrian Salmon Another YWA Salmon has rolled out of the works. I've gone for a similar finish to my first one but I've refined the building process so that future builds will all be consistent. I plan to get some more of these to increase the size of the rake, although it'll be slow progress given they have to all be built first! The kit was built as per instructions up to this point, with the usual addition of brass coupling hooks and air pipe at the end. The bogies were assembled with the included coupling blocks/plates. These were intended for mounting tension locks but I have added an NEM pocket. This sits at the correct height when glued to the coupling plate. Wheels are 33" HO scale disc type wheels. On both Salmons I've had to add a 40 thou plasticard spacer above each bogie in order to increase the wagon ride height. Once the bogies were on, a final improvement was made to the wagon. By drilling out the centre of the main air tank, a small section of wire can be added to link it to the brake distributer. I felt this was needed given the exposed nature of the frame. Bachmann MXAs I've had my eye on these for a while now and I couldn't resist getting a couple! They tie in nicely with the rest of my fleet and I hope to gradually build a small rake of them. The quality and detail of these models is excellent and I can't wait to see them weathered. I've made a start by masking the bodies off and giving the underframes a light airbrushing of track dirt. This has successfully faded the underframe only, leaving the body ready for brush weathering. Hornby Seacows A pair of Hornby Seacows in Mainline blue joined the fleet recently - an unexpected but welcome addition. Originally I had disregarded Seacows but after some research, I found that they could be seen running up to 2016, placing them well within my era. I couldn't find any pictures of Mainline livery ones running after around 2010 so the decision was made to hide the blue completely. This is the result of the first one, inspired by YGB 980183 nearing the end of its working life. I'm reasonably happy with the weathering given it's my first attempt at a Seacow. The other one will be repainted into a dirty EWS shade as a YGA. Unfortunately these models don't have NEM pockets so to convert to Kadee couplers I'll have to get some adapters (West Hill Wagon Works do some). I don't have an exact idea of how these wagons will fit in with planned operations on my layout (which is still in the designing stage), so they may just end up sitting in the yard or being shunted around. Thanks for reading.

So good to see it come this far and I'm glad it's working nicely. Can't wait to see how the yard area progresses

Nice idea to include that train on your layout, not sure I've seen it modelled very often. If you have an airbrush then a light spray of brown would achieve the effect you wanted on the KBAs.

Thank you very much, it's made by MIG Ammo, should come up in a search. I've found it gives acrylics a good 10 mins extra drying time (usually they dry pretty instantly when painted on). So yes, this allowed me to cover a whole panel, leave maybe a minute and then wipe off without any paint permanently sticking.

Thank you, I love the look of the bright red over the weathered background with the MHAs! With the Falcons the newer Dapol releases actually have a much better finish (thicker paint maybe?) so the effect isn't so much in the weathering I've done. They're all treated with a light airbrush spray of a track dirt shade which is wiped off the panels. Then I apply a brown wash and streak downwards with a rough brush.

Some work on the coalfish In the rain today I've been getting on with some extra visual improvements on my Coalfish rake. While previously they were a very uniform shade of brown, I've now added various details: painted over EWS logos, engineers' markings, patches over old graffiti etc. They are now more pleasing to observe on an individual level! Here are a few examples (haven't got on to the MTAs yet though) Patch painted red with old yellow axle boxes. A similar finish but with newer red axle boxes and engineers' chalk markings. A couple of MPA coded wagons, one still retaining EWS branding. I've got 4 Bachmann MFAs in Ex Loadhaul black livery but since not many of the ones seen today carry it, I've decided to bodge them into an EWS sort of colour. This involved painting the sides with a dark red wash and wiping downwards with a cotton bud to imitate remnants of EWS Maroon. The usual details were then painted on and a new data panel added. I've also weathered up three more Dapol JNAs

Some of your best vans to date, great work!

Great idea with the tail lamp, I envy you getting that 66 for a good price - would love a colas one some day. I spy some nice weathering on the OBAs too ;)

Personally I'm happy with my Bachmann ones (nicer underframe moulding and good running quality for a start). While the Cambrian body looks better, building and painting them takes up a lot of time depending on how many you want. You could of course a take a file to the Bachmann sides as others have done!

Thank you, I've got to admit a like a good Bachmann OCA - already made up and no fiddly livery painting to do. I'm sure you're aware of the side thickness but with some careful colouring I can hide it well enough for my purposes. I think the Cambrian body does look better though - ideally you'd have a Cambrian body on a Bachmann chassis but who wants to go to the trouble of doing that?! I've noticed the Bachmann one seems slightly taller but the difference isn't really too noticeable.

Thank you, I'm happy I was able to utilise some of your methods in acrylics!

Cambrian OCA in Departmental Grey/Yellow Amongst working on the Falcons and Salmons (more on that next time), I've found time to put together a Cambrian OCA I had lying around. This was part of a joblot I got a few months ago and it's one of the older kits with black and white plastic parts. I feel like I've built hundreds of this kind of wagon from Cambrian so it didn't take long for me to assemble it and add the usual modifications. I chose to paint it in grey and yellow as I only had one OCA in said livery. I was inspired by James Makin's wonderful work on his Bachmann OCAs in the same livery and I tried to follow the advice given for tackling them. I'm very pleased with the results, achieved using James's paint on and wipe off method highlighted on his thread - this is probably my favourite Bass wagon I've produced so far! You may know that I'm a big user of acrylic paints so I took several measures to give this weathering method the best chance. The base coat was sealed with Vallejo matt varnish to protect it from chipping when being rubbed. I then added some acrylic paint retarder (produced by MIG) to the brown in order to increase the working time so that streaks could be made. The effect is perhaps less extreme than my first attempt (see below). While I do prefer my more recent effort, the sheer variety of weathering effects found on Bass wagons today means that both wagons look acceptable together. Thanks for reading!

Ah I wondered if you were thinking of those ones. They're still at Didcot to this day!