On The Workbench Today...

Going Retro:

When I first started with railway modelling, being a young chap at the time, patience wasn't my best virtue and in the name of practising my painting and detailing I pretty much attacked anything I could. After a bit of time my 'eye' for detailing and standard of finish became far better - the only limiting fact (at that time) was the lack of models around to represent the wagons I wanted to run. Yes, I could have kit built, or even scratch built, but at that time in my modelling 'career' I was more than happy to just repaint what was available in the shops to give me my quick fix.

Case in point were these Bachmann bogie bolsters. At the time they were available in grey only - but I wanted some in EWS colours! Now of course they didn't and wouldn't exist but that didn't stop me repainting and decaling them up to represent a rake of steel carrying bolster wagons. Have to say I did a pretty good job - even if they were based on pure fiction!

Skip forward quite a few years and not only are we now blessed with models of almost (and I say that with my tongue in my cheek) all the rolling stock varieties we could want, but my taste has become a little more discerning and shall we say more accurate. I found these packed away in a filing box after not seeing them for a while. Now theres nothing wrong with them at all (apart from the livery) and so I thought rather than waste them, I'll retro paint them back into almost the livery they were when they were purchased - a nice little project and also a quick (and cheap) way of furnishing and filling up my roster of stock for my earlier models to haul.

I'd already done a pretty good job of fitting them with scale instanter link couplings so basically it was just a repaint and weather project, but I thought I'd add some nice scale steel girder loads too, to bring them in line with the detailing on the rest of my stock.

Firstly the bogies and under fame were repainted with my stock base weathering colour of Phoenix Frame Dirt. I find this is a great base to start with - once you've added subtle hues with weathering powders it really lifts the detail on the model. Next up was the main bodywork of the bogie bolsters. Had a look through my many tins of paint and would you believe it I didn't carry any BR Grey in stock! However I did have a tin of  Matt Humbrol Grey 64, which looked damn close to me and anyways, with a fair bit of weathering to be added it didn't need to be exact. Like most light colours it'll need a couple of thin coats to get the best colour depth but not so thick as to loose detail. The decks of the wagons will be painted with Tamiya Deck Tan XF-55 (again 2 coats) and when thoroughly dry I tend to give these a well thinned wash with my 'dirt' mix which really weathers and brings out the detail on the deck. The loads are simply bits of plastruct H section cut and glued and painted Dark Rust. These again will be weathered with dry brushing and powders, all held onto the wagon with fine chain and shackles. As you can see all the painting is being done by hand with a brush - didn't seem worth using my airbrush for this.

Of course painting is only one part of the project - they need the correct decals too. Thankfully Railtec Transfers do a pack perfect for both the type and number of wagons I've got, so one of these was ordered - intact I ordered it early in the afternoon, had a delivery email a couple of hours later and it came through my door the following morning - now that is service!

So hopefully in the next few days this little rake will be finished and I can post up the results. I'm happy that these wagons didn't go to waste after all and now they can earn their keep in a different role.