MTH O Gauge Coach weathering

 

I purchased these coaches over five years ago and for some reason they went onto the back burner! As I am now putting coach rakes into stock boxes, I thought the time was right to number and weather the stock as I put them in their new homes.

The Stanier based coaches were competitively priced and as such were ripe for weathering. Before I start, these coaches have lots of good points, sturdy build, well painted and fine scale wheels. On the downside was non flush glazing, bright wheels and no end buffer beam pipe work. They also have internal lighting, which I will not used. I would have rather MTH concentrated on better detailing that the lighting gimmick!

Weathering followed the usual method, so after shadowing all crevices etc. I used the airbrush for the main colours and then finished off by dry brushing springs etc.

Conclusion, after weathering I think they are a great addition to my stock, I think a Jinty hauled train on my new station layout will certainly look the part.

Full Brake

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Brake second (ex 1st)

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Corridor 2nd (ex 1st)

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Some More Stock Boxes in O Gauge

After quite a break without making any stock boxes, I decided the time had come to put my coaching stock in some semblance of order. I had coaches in the original manufacturers boxes, cheap cardboard replacements and some kit built ones with no boxes at all.

I stuck to my original specification for these new coach boxes and used the same materials and methods that I used for my Loco boxes. The complete spec. appears earlier on this site under Stock Boxes.

I decided what coaches would be in what box and then worked out the required size(s). While I wanted a comfortable fit, I did not want any wasted spaces. I also thought of Exhibiting and tried to make life as easy as possible, keeping the weight down and keeping the rakes and era’s together was the priority.

I did a quick cost and it works out at about 30 pounds per 5 coach-box.

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16T Minerals in O Gauge – revisit

Well they say a project is never finished and after adding the previous photo’s of the mineral wagons, I decided to have another look at them! My main reason was that I thought the BR Grey looked too clean compared with the really rusted parts. I decided to put on an overall grime coat to lessen the brightness of the grey – see what you think.

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Well, there we go – just a faint coat, but I think it helps. By the way I have photographed the opposite sides of the wagons this time.

 

OO BRT Class 20 revisited.

This is a Lima Loco I partially detailed about 20 years ago. I thought it about time I had another look at this Loco and other Lima Loco’s. The main reason I am returning to my old Loco’s is basically new ones cost so much and with my commitment to O gauge nowadays I simply can’t afford to do both. This Loco now has some Ultrascale wheels that I had in stock and has been completely re-weathered.

And ‘yes’ I do feel another layout coming on! Just a small stabling point I think – time will tell!

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16T Mineral Wagons in O Gauge

 

I have now made a start on weathering a rake of about twenty 16T mineral wagons. They are all Lionheart/Dapol and as such will need to be ‘loaded’ as the interior door detail is lacking.

The wagons include fitted and non fitted and will have a variety of weathering from virtually clean to quite rusty.  Below are the first five variations.

I mainly used a stippling method and added a small amount of talcum powder to create a little texture. I used five different ‘rusty’ colours – mostly Railmatch.

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O Gauge VAA and OAA

Here we have two air braked, Railfreight liveried Speedlink wagons. Both were purchased at bargain prices by Graham from Hatton’s recent Heljan sale.  They are destined to run on Morlock Heath in our later era.

On arrival Graham commented that the red part of the livery was very loud and could I tone it down a bit! I like a challenge and decided that I could certainly do this task. I decided to spray the whole of the wagon sides and ends with a mix of 95% Matt Varnish and 5% Matt White. I sprayed very light coats until I got the required results, I then left the wagons for three days to thoroughly dry.

After the wagons were dry, I did my usual ‘shadowing’ by used a black wash and then wiping the bulk of the wash off. I stippled the roof dark grey on the VAA with a piece of foam and then sprayed the underframes with Frame Dirt, Brake Dust and Matt Black, Finally I picked out the springs and brake clasps with Dark Rust.

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SM32 WW1 Layout All track now done.

After the arrival of the final piece of track and the two buffer stops this morning, all track laying is now complete.

The decision has been made to go DCC sound on all Loco’s and to also have a background sound system with the sound of a distant battle. We believe that the sounds are available and will start to progress a supplier.

We still need to sort out a coupling system and the entry to the sector plate scenic cover.

The ballast, I say that very loosely, has been obtained from the War Gaming World and expensive it was! Effectively ballast was not used and it was mainly stone and earth.

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Work on this layout will slow down a bit now as I have fallen behind with O and OO amendments to existing layouts that appear at Exhibitions later this year. However, we have set a target date for the finished layout of 1/4/19 —- silly fools!