A quick update on the wagons, I managed to repaint the sole bars grey rather than black and then decided to have a go a some weathering on them.
Encouraged by the advice on the
Whether to weather thread I got a few different paints to have a go. Fortunately the local model shop has a small cabinet with various secondhand models for sale and they had a Peco 2mm van for £1 which I thought was worth it for a little experimentation. So this was my first effort.
Encouraged by this I tackled the 2mmFS kits I've been building.
The LNWR van, shuffling the numbers around with a toothpick was a job and a half!
A Midland/LMS wagon
and finally the Midland brake van
I couldn't get transfers for the number so these were made up from printing a black panel on white transfer paper and then careful cutting out.
They are rather cruel close ups and I'm still undecided on the weathering. The weathering magazine guides show them daubing brown and grey streaks on and then blending and feathering out the colours. When I tried it, it just seemed to rub out the streaks rather than blend them together! I've a couple more wagons in the pipeline so I might try something different next time. I was quite pleased with the rusting effect on the end of the Peco van, this was one of Simon's suggestions - "wet on wet". I used a thin brown wash over all the the end panel, then whilst still wet I dabbed a few spots of base rust colour across the panel and worked them into the brown wash. So for the minute I think from normal viewing angles they look passable but no doubt will look different again when on a layout so I'm going to leave them as is for the minute.
In between this I've been doing a little more on the rail motor. The roof has been soldered on and rain strips added. The next part was the exhaust vent/chimney. On the rail motor there are a couple of "chimneys", one for the exhaust and one for the safety valve (?)
The exhaust chimney is circular but the second one is longer. I'm reluctant to call it oval as the sides are quite flat, however a bit of round brass tube squeezed in a pair of pliers seems to have done the trick.
I've got some plastic roof ventilators from the 2mmFS association to fit but wanted to get all the metal work finished first. I think the next job will be to build up some of the under frame detail.