Salt Wagon #1: Red

One of the salt wagons from the Thomas Show by Bachmann, as it looked in its Season 6 livery.

When I was little I used to call these "dog house" freight cars, as they have that peaked roof! I've seen great photos that have doors on the roofs as well for lowering blocks of ice, food crates, or china clay.

In addition to weathering using acrylics, scraped charcoal & pastels help with dust and coal effects. Then I finish with a clear matte spray, or leave it as it if it's just paint.

A very appealing wagon with good details and fun as always to give life for that extra touch of believable realism.

Fish Van #2: 12 Ton Plywood Vans

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!

Fish Van #1: 12 Ton Ventilated Van

For this post I thought I'd share pictures of one of many vans from Bachmann Branchline I painted and weathered as they would have from trains such as the Flying Kippar and other wagons in the yards of Knapford or Tidmoth.

This was one of the first I had purchased, and one of my favorites. It is gray, weathered in a dusty color, with a few hints of rust and grime.

My favorite part about this van is the vents on either end, and the detail in the rivets. I remember one being made for the Bachmann line of Thomas products, painted in nice colors and having the chassis molded from other wagons. Retail value was $25, this Bachmann Branchline at about $18.  I really appreciate Bachmann Branchline's attention to detail and realism in their wonderful models, which you can purchase much cheaper for excellent quality.

There's Something in the Air!

I have been going through my footage from long ago, and I've put together a full episode! It's "Something in the Air," and more will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Below are photographs I took of the sets while filming. First is the signal box seen in an illustration from the original "Old Iron" Railway Series book. There is an electric light installed, in the evening moonlight shining from a large office lamp.

At the Docks as Henry apologizes to Thomas. In these sequences I animated the eyes using an old Paint Shop Pro software called Animation Shop.

Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes: The "Flying Kipper's" Rolling Crane

A viewer recently asked how I made the crane in the Flying kipper sequence. The rolling crane has always been one of my favorites, so here are the photographs:

Studying from the video, I made the main body out of balsa wood, using the Atlas track knife to make smooth cuts. White glue was all that was needed for assembly. the crane's base is the grey card-stock.

I must say it was a challenge to make the wheels!

I wrapped strips of card-stock around a pen, then glued it together. Next I glued the roll onto paper, then cut it into a larger circle on each end to make the roll into a wheel.

I had to punch into the wheel holes to insert the axle into place, which is made out of cut toothpicks! Gluing the axle onto the axle boxes, leaving the wheels unglued, allowed the wheels to actually roll!

This was tough, but it was well worth the effort:

Here is the finished product! I made the cab the same way as I do with the buildings, assembling it with tape and using balsa wood braces to make it square. I also made the crane hoist out of wood and paper. You can also see both the cranes I made based on those used at Brendam Docks' quayside, as well as the warehouse seen in the original "Flying Kipper" story in the Railway series.

The track which the crane rolls on is also made from balsa wood. This allows the crane to cover longer distances as it loads the trains and ships with their cargo.

So this is how I got the crane to move. I taped fishing line onto the base of the wheel supports...

...Then looped the string around the coupler of an engine for very smooth motion. This worked really well and it came out beautifully in the final footage...

As a special surprise, here is a picture I took while filming the scene. Henry looks on as the workers load the fish into his Bachmann Branchline and Dapol vans, the light from the ship's cab flaring, cargo lying alongside the track, and the moonlight generated from a large office lamp looms over the quay. I put a light in the ship and controlled it with a cheep remote controller.

If only I had fog!

This scene is actually from "Thomas and the Spaceship," when Thomas was trundling along the forest with his long line of mail cars. That reminds me of those gorgeous promotional posters of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, and how beautifully modeled the diorama was made with the colorful lighting. Cool stuff!

There is a long, thin wooden plank wit a strip of textured green paper, which lies underneath the loosely ballasted track and protects the afghan quilt. I usually just lie the track on the quilt I use for the countryside, especially for branchline scenes, but for mainline sets like this, I had tried using this method, which looks much nicer! The Woodland Scenics Trees have their bases popped in place through the large holes of the quilt, and the dark green lichen is from A.C. Moore craft store.

Never Stop Creating!