Red train running

Finished in time for the National Garden Railway show, the wooden train was a star. It ran, after a little weight was added in the nose, faultlessly for several hours. All on the same set of two AAA batteries that I'd put in it for testing.I'm pretty sure it would have worked all day on a fresh set - amazing economy!

I need to do one job. The on/off switch in the cab which is part of the battery box, is a pain to get at. While ideal for people scared of wiring, it's fiddly and I can never remember which side of the cab to poke my finger in. You don't get reverse either, so a proper DPDT switch needs fitting.

Apart from that, I think I'll probably leave well alone. This is a pretty train, not a realistic one so it can stay unweathered and with the limited detail already fitted. Maybe an exhaust pipe could go on somewhere but that will do the job.

I'll admit I am tempted by the goods train version one day - but for the moment, no more projects!

Little red locomotive

To haul the coaches, I needed to finish the locomotive. It's a pretty simple beast so a coat of red with black detailing seemed enough. 

Some lining adds interest, but attempts to apply this with a bow pen were more frustration than success. No paint seemed to want to flow properly and after much wiping of blobby messes and swearing, I gave up. 

Nameplates are Slater's plastic letters stuck on a sheet of plastic with microstrip edges. 

Handles are bent wire. A sensible person would have filled the holes in the bonnet sides but by the time I realised, it was too late. 

Inside the cab, our driver is missing his toes as he has to squeeze in between the back wall and battery box. Control is either on or off with no reverse. Enough for running around an oval of track, but I'll need to address this one day. Perhaps the box can move under the chassis as that point too. 

Anyway, pretty enough. A long way from finecale, but this is a toy train, so pretty wins. 

16mm toytown coach painting and detailing

For painting laser-cut kits, I've enjoyed good results with the cheapo bottles of acrylic paint from The Works. At a quid a go, and with plenty of colours to choose from, they might not be "proper" modelling paint, but they do the job.

I tend to squirt paint out onto some plastic and then apply it neat with a wide brush. I do dip this in water every so often to thin the paint, but not much. It dries really fast and I like to give the surface a light sanding between each coat to flatten any wood grain that has risen.

3 coats seem to do the job, although I guess this depends on how deep a colour you require.

Before painting, I added some door hinges from scraps of wood. Afterwards, the varnished wood belt lines went on, making sure I cut a slot so it looked like the doors would open.

Talking of opening, brass handles from wire look nice - I bought some plastic mouldings but have lost the packet for the moment.

 Glazing is just plastic stuck inside the body. I could have flush-glazed but apart from taking time, I didn't feel it suited the slightly toytown style of these coaches. I've left the doors, but not the guards duckets, unglazed. This permits access to the inside if I want to add more passengers, or if one of them loses their grip on the seats.

Each roof is a bit of plastic sheet pre-bend around a fat marker pen and then fixed with epoxy glue. I didn't use superglue as the fumes can fog the glazing. I had thought I'd paint the roofs grey, but they look nice white so I'll give them a light sand with a mild abrasive to matt the finish for the moment.

Return of the wooden train

As I hinted on Saturday, the IP Engineering wooden train set is back. 

It's sat in a box for over a year, but now I need more pretty 32mm gauge rolling stock for my "Build a layout" project at Peterborough, so out it has come. 

The main stumbling block has been painting. I was worried that I'd hide all the laser-cut detail when I slapped on the paint, but as I discovered with the same companies railcar, washes of thin, cheap acrylic work a treat. 

I kids myself a little that this looks a bit like the Ramsey Peir tain. It doesn't, but that's the vibe I plan to channel when I finish it. That and a hint of fairground or park railway.