Barrels of fun…….

While I had the paint on the go I decided to see what I could with these:

Skytrex Barrels Skytrex Barrels

They are Skytrex resin that I picked up from their bits and pieces bin for £1 per strip, I do wish that I had bought more now because they don’t seem to have them on their site.

I am quite pleased with how they have turned out – they were photographed in this morning’s bright sunshine but they are quite subtle in reality.

Christmas progress.

Although the metal construction has slowed over the last couple of weeks I have managed to crack on with painting plus making and adding transfers.

A second parkside NBR 8 ton van is in primer and the CCT just needs a few bit’s touching up and it’s ready for transfers too.

GCR-LNER CCT Van GCR-LNER CCT Van GCR-LNER CCT Van GCR-LNER CCT Van

Then I finally got around to printing the “return to Kirkcaldy” transfers for the floor cloth wagon. They were printed onto white transfer paper and to achieve this I scanned the wagon side to get the grey for the background and then added the lettering. It’s not come out a perfect match but once the wagon side and the transfer is toned down a little by some weathering I think that they will look the part.

NBR-LNER Floor Cloth Wagon NBR-LNER Floor Cloth Wagon NBR-LNER Floor Cloth Wagon

Medley Models NER Fish Truck

I made a little more progress on the fish truck last Wednesday and Thursday evenings. First I made up the brake shoes strangely there are eight brakes each consisting of a centre shoe with arm and then twelve etched outer shoes – four short to add one each side. Initially I decided to add one to each shoe and a second to the four shoes that would fit at each end. Having done this I noticed that the shape of the scrap etch that the shoes came out of would allow me to add a plain inner one to the four inner shoes with a bit of filing to shape.
Medley Models NER C1 Fish Truck
I also realised that there were no brake yokes included in the kit – luckily my spares drawer yielded some nice cast ones from Laurie Griffin.
Medley Models NER C1 Fish Truck
The middle shoe has the supplied etch both sides,  the right hand one shows the plain one made from etch waste and the left one shows the same but with a semi circle scored in to represent the edge of the shoe itself – I am not sure whether it will survive painting but for the few seconds it took to do there is nothing lost of it disappears.
Lastly I made up the side door runners.
Medley Models NER C1 Fish Truck

Medley Models NER Open Fish Truck

Next across the workbench is a Medley Models NER Open Fish truck

IMG_7121

2 of the 8 outer side laminations need to be made up from small pieces etched inside openings due to lack of available space on the etch – Once you figure out what the instructions actually mean on this it’s quite easy to do.

Side frames

Sorry for the poorly focussed shot but you get the gist of the brass buffers.

Buffers

I made a little more progress last night and now that I am laminating a few of the layers it’s taking on a satisfying mass.

IMG_7127 IMG_7128