Mikkel

Thanks. You may be right about the merits of simple weathering, it's just that I made the "mistake" of looking at Craig's fantastic weathering (especially of the underframes) here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3646-p4-finney-28xx-currently/page__view__findpost__p__26970

Thanks. Sounds like doing it as a simple PDF file will be enough for my purposes.

That fruit van has real character, very nice. The handpainted "Wilmer" wagon is impressive. Are the letters handpainted too, or transfers?

Good to see progress on this. Lovely set of points! With your superb buildings this will become a really spectacular layout - can't wait to see more :-)

Looks better all the time, Will. The "slant" of the rock face is very convincing, I think. The hoover experience is interesting, you may have discovered a solution to the problem of simulating non-loco wagon shunting!

Hi Nick. Good to hear I'm not the only one with a sizeable "to do" list :-) For some reason these vans made me think it would be nice to build the body in real wood. Does anyone do that anymore? Just for the record, rainstrips have now been added. It seems they were only over the doors at first, later extended to cover the full length of the roof.

Lisa, that's a great idea and the ebook concept is interesting. Many thanks for sharing! Can I ask how you set up the ebook? I just checked and I see there is various softaware available. Can you recommend anything in particular?

Yes, outside framing really does add character to a van doesn't it ! On the weathering front, I would ideally like things a bit more subtle, right now it's pretty much grey on grey. I did add a murkish brown brushed upwards on the lower parts, but it doesn't come out. Agree that the Vallejo range is really good. The rich pigmentation makes is great to work with, I think, and it thins down very well. The fact that it's non-toxic and not messy means an entire wagon can be painted while still being social with the family ;-)

Hi Robin. I chickened out :-) It's all glued, the good (?) old way! Yes the Geen kits are very much "feel-good kits" (ie no stress!).

Been working on this little van - an Outside Framed 8 Ton Van from the David Geen whitemetal range. Still need to add rainstrips, I completely forgot about them! According to the instructions, these lovely O/F wagons were introduced in 1879 - although the Atkins et al bible seems to have different dates? I tried out Vallejo acrylic primer this time, brush-painted on. Doesn't look so neat at first sight, but once the van was fully painted I couldn't tell the difference between that and those of my wagons done with spray-painted primer. A nice feature of the kit is the inclusion of both grease and oil axleboxes (top lef and right respectively). The vans were built with grease axleboxes, but many later received oil boxes. The kit also provides for both non-reversible and reversible brake shoes. I went for the grease boxes, but used the reduced 8 Ton classification to suggest the 1900s. I haven't been able to find any record of when the reversible shoes were introduced? Posed in front of "The depot". The wagon will form part of the shunting puzzle together with other wagons currently being built. My stock weathering techniques are still rather crude, so any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated!

Hi Chris, the white washes over red are the same as on "The bay", as are the English bond bricks (*). Hopefully this will help enhance the illusion that it's all part of the same station. I must admit the colour scheme is just, er, "generic", and not based on any particular regional style, which with hindsight it should have been. Many thanks for the link to the photos, great atmosphere! I particularly like the "Milk and Fish depot" shot (fifth picture)! Those milk depots from the turn of the century are very modelable - I've a long-term plan to do one of the GWR London milk depots some day. BTW, the Science & Society library also has some interesting photos of similar scenes (although the search function seems to work best if you know the location), eg: http://www.sciencean...ations= (*) Except for the platform sides on The bay, where I got impatient and stupidly used a different bond. We always end up regretting such decisions!

Great setting! Wiltshire is also among my favourite parts of the GWR. Lovely locos too, the sentinel does looks great in GWR livery. Look forward to following this :-)

If you are not opposed to ebay, there's a couple of Bachmann 43xx/93xxs on there from which you could use the chassis, eg: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bachmann-OO-31-826-BR-GREEN-43XX-6384-STEAM-LOCO-/200653074108?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2eb7daeebc

Thanks. A while back we discussed whether the lower parts of the walls should in fact be painted a darkish brown, but concluded (more or less) that this seems to have been a slightly later practice (http://www.rmweb.co..../#commentsStart). So, will set about dirtying up the bottom walls this evening.

Not dull at all, Will ! It's only with this entry that I fully realize the task that you've taken on. One thing is modelling real locations when the landscape is mostly flat, but in a mountanious terrain like this it's quite something. So far it looks really good. I like the shot from below. Is the intention to add trees along the slope at the front as well? If so, perhaps you could add some natural see-throughs (eg where a storm has knocked over some trees) to allow glimpses of the train at the sides and not only the center?

Thanks gents. Lack of modelling over the summer is mostly due to lack of time and a tendency for the mojo to diminish as day-light lasts longer :-) Glad to hear the whitewashed brickwork looks OK, I wasn't sure. I agree that the contrast between the deck and walls is too strong. Good idea to darken the base of the walls, and I think I'll also lighten the deck a bit more. The roof is actually almost ready, so will test with that on too.

After a less than glorious summer (too much work, too much rain) it's time to get the autumn modelling season going. The past weekend saw a bit of progress on "The depot". As some may recall, the depot can be viewed from both the inside and the outside. These are the three outside walls, now approaching completion. Still need to add downpipes etc once the roof is fixed on. I’ve used a photo of Windsor goods depot as inspiration for this side of the building. Sides still not assembled, hence the poor corners. The canopies were knocked up from plasticard, with some leftover Ratio bits here and there. The brickwork was done using the good old method of two washes of white over a reddish foundation base (left). Nothing special, but I never cease to be amazed at the transformation that takes place once the washes are added. The decks were washed with thinned down Carr's sleeper stain. Heavily used places were given a light rub with wet and dry paper. But overall, still a bit too dark I think? For the inside, I was after a whitewashed look with the bricks just showing through. Ordinary paint was too thin, so I ended up applying two layers of lightly thinned plastic putty. This was then toned down and weathered. Perhaps I should have applied a third layer. View from the inside (sides not yet assembled). Looking at this photo, I think the colours need a bit of "blending in".

Very neat and creatively thought out. Thanks for the grain of wheat tip, I had almost forgotten about them with LEDs dominating things these days.

Hi Missy. Well as they said - it all looks superb. Those signals have a look of real craftmanship about them - almost a pity you have to paint them! Know what you mean about the "summer lull" in model making. But now we have the whole modelling season to look forward to :-)

Hi Nick, just been reading through this and some of your other entries again. It's a neat solution to the problem. It occurs to me that a combination of your "Loose ends" concept + optional fiddle yards either end as per your design above would provide a solution to my problem of how to operate a mainline platform on a (series of) micros. Or you could do it. How about joining camerton to loose ends when noone is looking :-). Might give a bit of a gauge problem though! Thanks for the inspiration, as ever.

I don't need to watch a movie to see bad continuity. Last night, I dreamt I was in Hawai enjoying a drink by the sea. Now being awake, and looking out the window on a grey European morning, I can see a definite continuity problem :-)

Lovely weathering Nick. Much inspiration there. I agree that it does look a little as if it's been in storage for a while, but sounds like you've got that taken care of. I've never tried adding enamel on acrylics. It doesn't sound safe though...

Dinner is ready at exactly the most critical time of a tricky soldering or glue job.