Here are five wagons I have just finished weathering for my friend Mike, Sorry they took so long! This was one of the most complicated wagons I have weathered as they need to be done inside and outside.

I did the outsides first using the wash and wipe method and then put a very thin wash on the inside to blend in all the overspill from doing the outside, This must be done very carefully and was very time consuming, but worth it.

I had hoped to get some variations into the various degrees of weathering on each wagon, and I did achieve some, but to be honest not quite as much as I wanted.

I then airbrushed the underframe with Frame Dirt, Brake Dust, Matt Black and a Light Grey coating to represent the wagons being cleaned after use with lime and/or disinfectant.

I did the roofs with stippling on a ‘wet’ Matt Black and Brown mix – I used a piece of foam rubber torn randomly for the stippling.

I have decided not to purchase any myself and I am not keen to do any more for any of my group friends – Not correct Bauxite colour, very fragile and light overall weight!

Here we have a medium weathered black tank wagon. This one is a Bachmann Brass from about 20 years ago. It was already painted and lettered to a good standard, but was very tatty and needed a partial repaint after a complete clean down with thinners.

This model was purchased second hand by a friend and I suspect this wagon was from an attic or shed layout as it had been used as a spiders toilet!! I have seen these little marks before and they are very difficult to remove.

I then gave it a coat of matt varnish before a medium weathering with spills.

This is an excellent Dapol Model. Although the prototype was made by the Southern Region, they seemed to travel a lot and I saw them quite often in East Anglia. In fact I think there is still one ‘marooned’ in the remains of an old siding in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. It is now in awful condition!

Just a medium weathering here ensuring that everything was done!

Here are two different Sand wagons in O Gauge – One is RTR and the other is a kit-built. They have a light weathering, mainly due to the materials (sand) carried. Basically no big lumps to damage the interior or exterior of the wagon when loading or unloading!

This is a Parkside (Peco) wagon kit, made to an excellent standard. My job was just to paint, letter and weather. It will be fitted with a removeable load later.

The Main job was to get paint into all the crevices by the ‘wash and wipe’ method, underframe was airbrushed and further bits were dry brushed.

Another two of the fantastic Dapol Fuel Tanks weathered. The Esso is Light to Medium and the Shell/BP is Medium weathered. This must make at least 25-30 I have done over the years and its always a pleasure.

Here we have a pair of Siphon G Bogie Wagons. Both needed renumbering as ones that had visited the Eastern Region during the Late 50’s – Early 60’s. After much research my friend came up with two numbers that I believe paid us a visit.

The renumbering was relatively easy, although spacing between the body slats had to be done with care. All other information panels etc. were as original Tampo Printing and they blended well with the new number transfers (HMRS).

Now we come to the weathering and my instructions were to have one ‘dirty’ and one ‘absolutely filthy’, I think I have achieved that. I started with my usual wash and wipe, and the first thing that made life difficult was the slats were vertical, but the vents at the top were horizontal. This meant the ‘wipe’ part of the operation had to be done in two parts, very carefully and slowly to avoid taking any paint from the crevices. The roofs were washed and lightly wiped, and then lightly stippled to create a mottled and distressed look.

It was then over to the airbrush and my usual four colours were used, the ‘absolutely filthy’ wagons was given a extra bodyside coating to ensure it was grottier than the other one.

After Airbrushing I did my usual Dry Brushing highlighting several areas of the bogies and underframe with dark rust and matching brake dust.

DIRTY

ABSOLUTELY FILTHY

This is a Dapol/Tower Limited Edition ‘OSBORNE’ open coal wagon with RTR weathering! I was asked to completely re-weather the wagon to give a more realistic look, this was to include a replaced plank, reflected inside and outside the wagon, as it was to run empty.

I must admit I am not an admirer of ‘Splash and Dash’ one colour weathering, and its not always easy to pull them around and make them more realistic. Luckily this one was not over-splattered! I used five different colours!

By the way, I have left the original coupling as they will be replaced by ‘Dinghams’ before use.

Here we have three vans that I recently purchased. Although Dapol released them some time ago, for some reason I did not purchase any, probably the age old reason – could not afford them!

After opening the boxes, I sealed the ‘tampo’ printing with a coat matt varnish. I have had problems in the past with thinners attacking the printing during weathering, this stops any deterioration of print.

Two types of Vans here, firstly two air braked VEA’s and a vacuumed braked predecessor, VMV.

All Vans had the wash and wipe method, airbrushed and dry-brushed.