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Not yet, i used it on some buildings to fade the light and dark stone. Ir gave that dusty white faded look nicely. I wouls think it will work on a wagon, it was picked up as a technique from a youtube video. The guy was in the US fading various box cars.

The pickups in the tender do their job very well. I had mine on a rolling road at the weekend. We found if you lifted the tender off the track*, the motor actually slowed down until you lowered the tender back on whence it sped up again.! * the RR was one where there are 6 rollers for the engine and the tenders sits on a bit of track.

It's actually not too difficult. :) In the dim distant past I have used white gouache thinned down with Microsol (not a cheap thinner, but I think I may have found a source of it's key component! Acrylic paint thinners will probably do the trick) painted over a base colour gives a good fading effect. Being water based, it is dead easy to remove if you're not happy with it.

No, you didn't forget, Chris. I just cut the wire a smidge too long. The wire for the brakes at the other end went in smooth as.

Hi Roja, it was airbrushed. I just my used my cheapo Chinese brush that came with the compressor. I was a bit worried about clogging my H&S, but had nothing to worry about as it turns out. There was a bit of tip drying on the needle, but it cleaned off easily and wasn't enough to affect the flow. It probably helped that I used a few drops of thinners with flow enhancer and retarder in, though the Vallejo Model Air paints can be sprayed without thinning. The coverage of their primer is brilliant. I've posted this image before, but it's worth showing again.

Thanks Rob, it was very easy to put together. Buffers heads are the H&A ones that it was designed for and I had in stock, I used Lanarkshire Model Supplies coupling hooks that slotted straight in. Being a bit cack-handed, I did manage to partially damage one of the brakes on the inside when fitting the wire, but that was easily glued back together. The finish of the print is fantastic.

As I was saying... I opted for black undercoat, ready for the dark grey top coat. 🙂 I need to glue the brake handles on before I lose them and place an order to Railtech for some transfers. Once weathered, the grey should darken down a bit more. I've gone with Valejjo acrylics all over on this wagon. They have gone on very nicely. Using a "starter kit" of Model Air paints, I mixed up some lead white for the roof using white and yellow ochre and then used the Blue Grey with a couple of drops of black in for the body and underframe. I have to say I'm very impressed with how it went on. My first dabble with Railmatch acrylics many years ago put me completely off them and it was enamels all the way. Now I have choices.

Chuffing Nora!! Ee's only gone and started another project whilst leaving half built kits around the place! Yup, I have succumbed to one of @chuffinghell Chris's CC7's. Even though I have a Falcon Brass CC7 kit stashed away I decided to get one in case the FB one gets the better of me, I've still not completed a single brass kit yet. Anyway, this one was a lot simpler to put together. After all the debate about the colour of departmental wagons, I opted for black.

The result of using one boiler moulding with the base of the chimney built in and trying to cater for two chimney diameters using different tops.

I ended up buying a bottle of Windsor & Newton retarder and some flow improver after struggling to work with Railmatch acrylics years ago. Probably got more than I'll ever need, but they did help.

I believe it was due to the fact that the dark green would have rendered in a dark grey, thus making it not as clear, losing detail in any shadows etc. A light works grey as used enabled you to see the engine more clearly.

Certainly not a lot where the haze is concerned, but better rendition of "colours"? Probably.

Reworking the hue/saturation adjustment layer to match the Ortho 80 test target on the link I posted earlier results in some changes that bring together some details of research that did not sit right with my previous attempts using the parrots as a guide. I don't think the rendition of orthochromatic greys was accurate on that image. I've now got the lighter blues and less yellow response, as would be expected from the texts I've been reading. I've also been able to tweak things using the distinctive S curve for contrast. As I originally posted, I found a lot of contradictory information, but things seem to be converging on more solid info. Revised using Ortho 80 target:

Some interesting paragraphs relating to @magmouse Nick's observations on old photos earlier in the thread:

I had read about use of yellow filters on some other sites. Another link for some lengthy reading: https://www.35mmc.com/02/05/2023/spectral-sensitivity-of-bw-film-a-deep-dive-into-orthochromatic-panchromatic-and-all-the-rest/ I have read it all through yet, but jsut skimming down and looking at the pics already reveals a lot of information, especially the renderings of their test target.

I make them 20.something mm each, very similar and hard to measure due to the hand rails. The front of the Dapol firebox is about 1mm wider than the A/S.

I've not tried but can clearly see the glue on the back two corners. I'll more than likely just leave it in place

Regarding these two items: - the buffers are far too heavily sprung to be of any practical use, they might as well be solid. - To reveal a blocked off hole. In doing so, we're given oversize hinges and on mine, the lid is wonky*. I think it would have been nicer just moulded correctly. *There's a few other QC issues on mine. Once I've given it a full look over, I'll do a proper write up.

That would be fun to have an Express Diary tank and see how long it took for people to notice.

Mine was placed rather than lobbed but they still lied abpur handing it to me. I can still see it on the doorbell cam thankfully.

Hopefully it doesn't rain between now and tomorrow evening. DHL claim parcel handed to resident, video says otherwise as it was dumped next to the bins. Depending if anyone spots a box sitting in the front garden and takes a shine to it I may or may not have Anthony Manor waiting when I get home. 🙄

I fell in to the same trap until someone kindly pointed it out to me.

Nooo. Unless buffers are hydraulic, they wont be steel/silver. They would be painted black or body colour depending on Big 4 company and rusty where paint is worn.

I've done a quick visualisation to help with the spectral response of the Ortho 80 graph posted before. The weird transition to purple/violet is because most colour gradients only extend to the visual spectrum and abruptly stop at 400nm, this one was one the few that extended a bit past it. My addition is basically going in to UV.

That looks better. For ortho film I'd expect the greens to be lighter too, so I do think this is probably a better representation of pre-ortho bromide emulsions.