In the weeks leading up to the event a few helpful emails were received form the course leaders and the tutor in charge of my part of the course (Tim Shackleton teaching weathering) offering advice on what tools and equipment to bring as well as details of what to do on arrival and what would happen over the weekend.
I arrived on the Friday afternoon and was warmly welcomed by Chris Langdon who gave me my name badge for the weekend as well as a Manual and some other bits and told to report back to reception at 5pm to have a guided tour along with the other newbies. This tour took us to all the class rooms in use to see what would be done where, something you are encouraged to do over the weekend is visit these other rooms to see better what they are doing - I personally never did as I was too engrossed in my weathering (I will do next time though), this works well both ways as you can see what other classes you can take for another time as well as help those in the classes you visit.
After completion of the tour I returned to the studio that would be home for the next 2 days or so. Here I met the other participants on the weathering section and we all set up our equipment - either our own stuff or that which Tim provided for use to see what we thought. An airbrush, compressor, turntable and spray booth with extension hose are the main things needed.
The first part of Friday night was spent observing a weathering job carried out on a Maunsell coach, this is very useful for those with limited experience to see how easy it is to do a convincing job - for anyone who has read any of Tim's guides it followed the same simple process of weathering on the roof and frames whilst leaving the sides clean.
After a short break for supper (excellent sausage and mash meal) we had a welcome briefing where we met all the class tutors and the team running the course, as well as a more detailed overview of what would be happening and the all important health and safety section (those who were there will know what it was, so I won't spoil it for anyone), before returning to the classroom for a view of more weathering work on the Maunsell this time mainly using powders. This along with the social chatting amongst the students took us till 10pm when work finished for the day and we retired to the bar to put the world to rights over a couple of pints of ale (or whatever you choose to drink).
Saturday morning began with a hearty buffet breakfast set up before the first session of the day began at 9am, where Tim showed us how to weather a Tank Wagon complete with oil spills before been left to our own devices. All 5 of the attendees were left to work on whatever project they wanted with guidance from Tim as well as each other - personally i began with a rake of 9 Hornby fish vans which all received a varying degree of dirt inflicted upon their once clean bodies.
Although it was a long day of modelling (first session started at 9am and the last ended at 10pm) each session was no more then 2 hours long with breaks for tea/coffee or food in between, you were welcome to take a longer break if you wanted to explore the grounds of the abbey, have a nap, visit another classroom or anything else you wanted to do. Personally I found this to be a good structure allowing people to take the breaks to clear their heads or refocus on what they were doing as well as chat with the other modellers.
In the weathering class there was a nice relaxed atmosphere with everyone talking as they worked - naturally railways were the main subject discussd - which helped the time fly past. Soon the last session was over for the night and the bar was calling us yet again which proved a nice relaxing atmosphere to unwind after a day of hard but enjoyable work.
Sunday started with a review of what everyone had acheived the previous day offering help and advice to improve what we had done, but after that it was pretty much the same except the last session finished at 3pm (although those of us in the weathering class used this last session to clean our equipment so work for us stopped at 1) before a final debrief where we all reviewed the weekends course.
All in all I found it to be a most enjoyable experience where I learned some new skills and got a huge confidence boost in my weathering abilities thanks to the feedback from Tim and the other occupants in the class. Outside of the class the food was fantastic and drinks offered at the bar very enjoyable as well as the company been very pleasent (don't think I spoke to a single person there I did not enjoy chatting with over a drink or a meal).
If I was to pick one fault (its hard to find one to be honest) it is my wallet is now trembling at having tried a much better compressor than I was used to I now know I need to purchase one to improve my work - that and a spray booth will allow me to work indoors in all weathers. But other than that I cannot recomend one of these weekends (or the week long summer retreat if you prefer) enough.
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