Bergs Hobbies NSW x200 (20 year old kit)

Bit of a production line today. Ended up stealing some surgical masks from my partner as I was sick of breathing in plastic bits and it helped me stop getting dizzy from the glue.
I managed to get 4 HLX bodies assembled.

Also soldered on some wire to hold the brass roof section on (springs against the inside of the cab). Its ready for paint now.

Ducked out to Hobby Co and spent $100 on paints, some lacquer thinner that I needed and weathering washes and a few other odds and ends.

These AR Kits HLX wagons are so so (but if I had another batch I think the assembly would be a bit nicer too). It would have been nice if the sides were not as warped as they were. Only on the 4th model did I think to straighten it out by soaking the end in some boiling water to let me straighten it.

The main issue is making sure the sides fit over the ends nicely. And the ends of the sides are not warped out of shape (which some of them are due to their resin pour in molding I think). I think resin printing these could be a good way to get some nice consistent models of these wagons.

I guess that will be handy when I move onto the 10 pack of BCH coal wagons. For the price compared to a ready to run model I guess its okay. But not sure where I can buy HLX rolling stock (think its all sold out for the limited runs various manufactures have done in RTR format). What I see on ebay is mostly AR kits assembled for sale from someone.

Overall a bit of tidy up with a knife, sanding sticks and putty should see these looking alright, at least good enough for me to run on a club layout and at an exhibition I think.

 

Well time flies. I have been away from the work bench for a bit (overseas trip, steam train rides back near home and working on some other projects). I have learnt a good lesson. Don't start too many projects at once otherwise you don't finish the current ones.

In terms of projects that had to get slotted it, I needed a work bench in the carport to spray paint my models. So that had to get done.



A bit of a uneven coat here.. this was the first thing I ever airbrushed. Practice is needed.
After some critical thoughts I decided spraying on carboard held down with a brick on a wonky saw horse wasn't going to be a comfortable setup.. I figured it was time to use the steel work bench legs I salvaged from a friend's place.




Work bench complete. Plans are being worked on to convert this space into a garage + train room above.


The ARkits HLX wagons are coming along. Undercoated, painted in SMS gunship grey. Had to reach out on Facebook to confirm some paint issues (too hot, too far away, not enough thinners). Was getting a chalky surface to the touch. Wiped down and touched up a few times in spots. Made the mistake of leaving a finger print on one model trying to move it before it was dry. IPA to the rescue and another respray touch up done. These have been clear coated in matt coat from micro something or other (water based clear coat). One needs a little more clear coat. But the air bursh has certainly been getting a workout.





Next stage is to weather the bogies, decal the models. Clear coat around the decal again. Then weather the body & clearcoat again I think (if my youtube education is correctish at least).

And the other project is 17 RU wheat wagons I got off a facebook 3d modelling group, out of someones resin 3d printer. The price was very good and the quality seems pretty good.

These have been cleaned, trimmed of resin supports and undercoated. Wheels and Kadees are ready to go on. Also likely to get some weathering treatment too. These RU's sort of got slotted into near the front of the project queue as I will be going to an exhibition with a local club and operating over the two days in January. The layout the club is taking has a wheat silo and I don't have any operational wheat wagons. So these will do nicely I think.


And here is a few pictures of the Kiama Picnic train, NSW 59 class on a ~7hour train ride (return) from suburban Sydney to basically near the end of the suburn line.

 

Love where the guys have stashed their burgers & hot chips for the drive home.

 

Tried adding some decals for the first time since before I was like 16?? (i'm almost 41 now). Not quite straight, not happy. But also couldn't quite fix it enough before the glue & decal solution set up.

Lessons learnt tonight:

1) Decals stick to fingers more than tweezers.
2) Tweezers / knife can work well to move a decal around.
3) Don't drink a few beers then decide to apply decals.

Either way, I picked the worst of the 4 wagons to decal first. So its fine to regard this as an experiment/training wheels in applying decals.
I plan to heavily weather this wagon as well as the others. So that will hopefully hide the minor issues here.

Next step will be to matt varnish it again, attached the kadee's & bogies and then start layering up paint and pigment powder.
It feels nice to be closing in one nearly completing one of the wagons (knowing 3 others are not far behind it), which will hopefully not have the beer hands applied to them.

 

Applying decals is done.. I learnt today I should probably let the model sit for 24 hours for the decal glue to set. When air brushing the decals with matt varnish a few had the sides lift up. Managed to get those back down. A little lesson there.



Wheels and couplings installed on the 17 RU wheat wagons. Kadees are held in by a press fit piece which i applied a little bit of glue as they don't fit awesome. kadee height is okay.



The side quests are coming to a close and I can get back to focusing on the old bergs white metal kit soon. Having learnt some painting and decal application I feel like I can reasonably "get it finished" to a moderate standard now.