The Bug in the System

As you may know, I acquired four GEM kits for bug box style carriages that I was going to turn into my own rendition of the FR Heritage set. Thus far, I have built one of the bugboxes the earlier version. It was quite a fiddly kit requiring me to pare off the spike on the end of the wheelset so that it could fit on the bottom frame of the carriage.  Another interesting feature was the need to attach a small fabric washer to each axle to prevent the whole carriage acting like a lightning rod and causing a short on the circuit. Hindsight is wonderful and I wish I had taken some photos of that part of the process to show to you. Here are some pictures of the carriage in it's green basecoat and with the first layer of indian red. 

Here is is coupled with the first of my bugboxes and the peco guards van.



Showing off the green basecoat.










Showing off the first layer of the Indian Red livery.
Just as a final thought, for this blog, on the subject of undercoating. I have had some people asking why I choose random colours for my undercoats. The answer is simple. I dont tend to choose the colour; I just use what I have lying around. I have found that Games-workshop Acrylic paints have a base coat range, which acts as an excellent primer for my models. Im not fussed what colour I use as long as I have a suitable basecoat for them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Restoration and new carriage

Image
The restoration of the observation carriage is coming on quite well. 12 hours in some paint stripper and the gentle application of sandpaper has yielded some of the original metal of the model. Thanks to the power of Social Media, I have been able to ascertain that the kit is possibly an old Green Arrow kit, which is rare apparently.  I have strengthened the sides of the guards compartment, repaired the damage to the Guard's compartment and will construct a new roof from styrene when I get back off my summer holiday. At present the carriage has been undercoated in the usual black undercoat and will be painted to match it's partner carriage.  Which brings me onto the fourth large carriage of the fleet. I purchased another Vale of Rheidol Carriage with the intention of emulating Carriage 24 from the Welsh Highland Railway. I was considering making it from scratch but I enjoy constructing the Vale of Rheidol carriages too much. I am not in the business of accurately re...
Read more

My biggest update so far...

Image
So I haven't made the greatest amount of progress until now. This weekend I had the opportunity to visit the famous 'Hattons' near Liverpool. I had initially gone in with a list of things I would want to purchase, and ended up with quite a good deal more than I had bargained for. However, all of this is for the best as there has been quite a shift in terms of the whole project taking shape.  Track  I have finally secured some 009 gauge track for the layout. This is quite a coup for me, as I had experienced a bitter defeat with the old N gauge track that I had used on my old layout. The Peco track really is something to behold. I hadn't realised how good it could potentially look on the railway, but I am a convert. So far there is about a full metre of 009 gauge track on the layout. I am going to bite the bullet and get the mainline points as a Manning Wardle is just too gorgeous to pass up.  Rolling stock The rolling stock side of the layout is where I am maki...
Read more
So here is my first foray into the world of narrow gauge modelling. I have owned two model railways in my life. The first being a Thomas the Tank Engine train set on a baseboard with some cardboard and plastic buildings. It was special to me because it was a Christmas present and it was a barrel of laughs to play with. My Dad helped me with the construction and my Grandad would show me how to operate it. Happy memories. The second was an old N-gauge layout that was my Grandads. He passed it on to me for my 16th birthday and while it was a more serious piece of work for me to look after I had to put it to one side whilst the call of university beckoned me. No room for model railways in student digs. Fast forward ten years and I'm now happily married in my own house and lots of spare time. What an excellent opportunity to start a new project. I decided on Narrow gauge for three reasons. 1st Narrow gauge modelling consists of lots of scratch and kit building which I love 2nd...
Read more