To give a bit more realism to my wagon rakes I like to renumber them if possible. Thankfully there are various companies out there that produce decal sets that make this very easy. I decided to use a pack from Fox Transfers specifically for this model. Before applying them I gave the area to be changed a couple of coats of Klear floor polish. It gives a really good base onto which you can apply decals and stops the silvering effect you see all to often, of the decal transfer film. Once the area was dry the individual number sets were carefully applied and then a final coat of Klear was used to finish off and seal the decals on.
Whilst these were drying I took the opportunity to finish off the base weather coat on the bogies and wheels. Left to dry, these were all then re assembled before I could start work on paint details of the main wagon bodies - this consisted of mainly enlarging the yellow panels on either end of the roof and also patch dirt painting on the 3 body sections. This was done in a quite random but prototypical manner so as again to give a bit of variety within the rake.
These were again then left to dry and harden off over night before final washes of thinned down frame dirt were applied to each section in turn - not forgetting the ends too. To finish off I then began using weathering powders (MIG black and dark rust) on the bogies and then on the top and sides I just used black to simulate the dirt and stains that the real thing exhibits.
These are pretty much done now - they just need the weathering powder dialling back/spreading a bit on the sides, plus a bit of grease on the buffer heads. Other than that a few little bits of the weathering just need tidying a little (more noticeable when you photo them than when you see them with the naked eye) but they're going to look great with all 8 hooked up together, plus a few other steel wagons...
Only thing I have to decide now is whats going to head up this train. After looking on the internet it seems a Class 66 would be the most suitable - the train is meant to represent a typical Margam to Round Oak steel train. I have 3 EWS Class 66's to choose from in my collection, so will get round to tackling one of those soon. For now I'm going to leave these wagons alone, step away from them and come back later as there's always the temptation to overweather rolling stock and as the saying goes 'less is more'. In the meantime this is the current state of play...
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