millerhillboy

superb, very atmospheric and as you say worth it in the end. 28 carriages!! that would cost you a pretty penny at todays prices, the blue riband mk1s which I much prefer must be made of solid gold these days!!

These will look super, much much finer than the usual 16tonners

Ooft, rewarding as they are I found them difficult to paint with only brushes. The legs and body yes but things like hands, faces and hats for example are all done by little blobs of slightly thinned paints which i apply with something like a 0.3mm drill bit!!! I'm sure there must be better techniques but I get there in the end. Looking forward to seeing yours.

Can't wait to see you start using the modelu figures, I hope you find them as good as I do and I think they'll fit in superbly on such a high quality detailed layout.

Brake vans have really merged in superbly and really look top notch. You wouldn't think they were an old model.

Can I throw my hat in the ring, I remember attending the haymarket open day in 1985 and seeing 58016, it was like an alien landing as far as myself and other 12-13 year old spotting mates were concerned. Never seen anything like it that far north at that point, the 56s were a long way short of arriving and apparently it was the first ever 58 north of the border. http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/Class+58

Great idea, I'm sure Harry would have enjoyed seeing that.

superb and pretty unique I'd imagine as well. Lovely patient work Steve.

The scenic side is going to look superb Iain, you far away from starting to progress on that?

58's are going to be cracking, you are making a fine job of the masking which I always think is worth taking your time with and getting right as hard as it can be sometimes. Your faded 08 is superb as well.

oops even better than, do minitrix ones predate the peco ones? Either way what you've got looks excellent . I replaced all my peco vans for farish ones a while ago but I didn't particularly think I needed to really as what I had looked OK. What about adding a character to the veranda?

well done on giving a new lease of life to the peco brake vans, a decent model to start with I felt and you've certainly improved it that's for sure

10-11 years , that takes a bit of beating!!! 15 coal loads to do, just can't get started

24 !!! Well done. I'm finding it hard to work through 15 16 tonners so fair play to you for working your way through that lot

Thanks Dave always good to get feedback from a true expert. I think you are right about 16 tonners though, it does seem to be a subject in its own right. another difficultyI find is trying to generate suitable variation accross a rake of them, you feel if you are doing the same thing time and time again, it probably wouldn't look like it in the end either but as you are working you tend to get sucked into it.

Yeah, agreed on the battered and bruised point. I've seen a few guys try it in bigger scales and I'm not even sure it works there so you can forget it with N gauge. Thanks for your feeback though, its appreciated. I always think you've got a great eye with the colour palette you use for your weathering so if they work for you that's a good start IMO

I also was still not quite satisfied with my 16 tonners so had another go. I wanted to soften the look of the rust spots and get it more blended in. Not sure if I acheived that or not but I think these might be a little better, as always feedback welcome either way. You won't hurt my feelings

Next up the equally excellent footplate crew. Painting these are a barrel of laughs!!

At the risk of accelerating the process of my marbles getting lost.... I decided to attend to a recent delivery from the excellent Modelu3D I like to have my locos lamped up, even if it does happen to sometimes end up showing the wrong headcode. Then after painting and dotting with a 0.3mm drill bit to replicate the lamp.

You can almost smell that picture.

That's a decent shift put in there Iain, and I'm sure you sat back and felt you'd made progress. Looking forward to seeing you progress further in albeit these difficult times.

Yes lovely change, some of these dusky night time shed shots are superb.

superb work Graeme, you must have the patience of a saint (or enjoy making buildings).

lovely lovely work Steve and to such a high standard

Thanks Duncan, appreciate your input. You are right off course with your comment regarding the scale and harshness of the photography at this scale and I remember working with some paul bartlett pictures up in front of me whilst doing the weathering and thinking I'd done OK but when I see them there the rust spots do look like circles applied with a circular object, which I kind of suppose many rust spots would have been anyway. They do look OK at NVD like you say and that's all I am for. Thanks for your comments.