Tankers #1: Sodor Fuel Tank Overhall

For this project I wanted to try modifying one of Bachmann's tankers from the Thomas line to make it look more like they do on the television series.

I took this picture to show you the new tanker supports, made from balsa wood strips, the vertical pieces placed closer together, and the top cross piece extended out a little. They were assembled with white glue and crazy glue. After the glue dried I also glued two strips of paper to add a bit of raised detail for the cross supports. An Atlas track cutting knife was used to cut the plastic corner pieces of the buffer-beam off, and sanded them smooth before painting.

Here is what it looks like from the side. The logo remains unpainted, but I added some yellow paint to kill the factory shine, and repainted the underframe and chassis of the car. I weathered it using  acrylic paint in a rust color.

That's it! I would suggest trying to add separate brass or plastic braces that hold the tank to the body, drill or dowel a hole through the tank supports, then into the middle of the chassis footplate side to attach them.

Flat Cars #1: Repainting Bachmann Flat Cars

 
A few years ago Bachmann Branchline made a rake of new flat cars, The prototype is from a more recent era, in the 80s and 90s, compared to the era Thomas and his friends worked in the 1930s and 1950s, but it was a great find, and I bought two to paint and weather.

I thought they needed some cleaning from dust and some fresh paint, and here I posted some pictures for progress.

When I last painted them, the sides and the well were painted acrylic grey, the plastic brown of the wood for the flatbed masked with tape to be painted later. Then I painted the underframe and bogies black, then added a little grime and rust.

Still looks good, but the plastic wood needs to be painted to kill that plastic shine.

Here I masked the edges of the flatbed so I could start painting a mushroom color for the wood floor, pictured is the first coat with light paint strokes.

While the final coats were drying, I sprayed a grey matte to the flatbed supports which came with the package, then just dry-brushed the grey I used for the wagon's sides, and glued them into place.

They look much better with their new modifications, ready for some loads! Check out this post:

Wagon Loads #1: Timber, Crates, & Machinery   

 

Annie and Clarabel

I was asked how I painted and modified Annie and Clarabel for the video clips I made, so here are these sweet ladies!

Studying from the episodes from Season 5 onwards, I modified these coaches to match how they looked after they were repainted and restored on the episode "Sir Hopham Hatt's Holiday" 1997.

The eyes are painted, and the mouth, pupils and eyelashes are ink pen. 

 
Using Folk Art Acrylics, yellow was mixed to orange to give them their color scheme. Gold Jell pen was used to color the handrails.

This was the first go at painting Annie and Clarabel this way, and in some places the paint is a little sloppy, but they still look lovely do they?

For the best results, I would strongly recommend saving the extra investment to using Badger Airbrushes for painting coaches, or any piece of rolling stock, with primer first to make paint stick, and hand mixing custom colors to get the look you want.

"No matter what we look like, we'll always be Useful!" Annie and Clarabel

Happy Modelling!