Those fish Vans! Henry's Flying Kipper had many ventilated vans like these. Of course weathering and fine painting would serve good stock like these, so here's a post to showcase the cars I've had for a while to make them look apart.
Bachmann branchline makes great vans, and back in 2007 I ordered a batch of the newest type with vents on each end, the 12 Ton BR plywood vans. Love to get more of these, especially the 12 Ton planked ventilated vans which can now be hard to find. Weathering gives such a good and believable appearance, so I had a go to give new life to these models.
For all my painting and weathering, I use FolkArt, Apple Barrel, and My Studio acrylics. Mixing colors for the base coat comes first, then variations come in for dust, grime, ash, rust, and faded metal. Depends on what the wagon carries!
Vans 1 & 2 look more the same, painted in a BR Bauxite, one has more side vents than the other. These can be seen both in the Railway Series book illustrations and the classic television series, not quite the same type, but common on Britain's railway network.
This one is more faded, painted in a darker reddish oxide, faded down with a medium gray wash. Might have been exposed to more rain compared to the others!
Weathering is quite easy and takes practice to make good models look believable, research gathering, a lot of reading and a lot of doing!
Vans are some of my favorite wagons, mainly I think because of the Henry's Flying Kipper. So many variations of style and design, a great addition to your layout
Happy Modeling!
