I’ve been really slack the last couple of years when it comes to updating this blog. I post a lot of updates regarding progress on Lambing Flat on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/amrmjmes) which is all very well if you are on my friends list on Facebook, but not much use to anyone else! I have resolved to also post updates on here as well (and hopefully catch up on some of the other developments that have occurred since I was last active on here).
Here is the first, but hopefully, not the last.
The latest addition to the fleet, an SDS MB van, which I aquired at the Modelling the Railways of NSW convention last Saturday. It is MB25071 from the 1970s era Pack G. Straight out of box, it looks quite nice, except for the plain textured black roof. Otherwise, it is modelled as a fairly recent overhaul with fresh Gunmetal grey and nice new ‘wiggly R’ logo, dating it as having been rebuilt into an MB circa 1970 (25071 was an MBC in the 1969 wagon book), but the lower position of the lamp irons suggests a mid- to late-1970s time frame. All the circa 1970 MB conversions I have seen had silver painted, Malthoid-covered roofs, so I added a Malthoid roof by cutting masking tape into 3′ wide strips and laying them accross the roof, trimming to length and then painting the roof with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. I also hand-painted the wheel rims, wheel backs and axles Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown and then washed some of my ‘grime’ Tamiya black/brown in Isocol alcohol weathering mix over the underframe and bogies to kill the ‘plastic’ shine of those items. Then I brushed on some Bradgon weathering powder to dull the sides, ends and underframe off a bit. A very quick way of turning a very good r-t-r model into something just that little bit more realistic.
