Talyllyn Coaches - Finished

Emerging from the paint shop, that's No.4 & 5 at a stage I'm happy to call finished. Really pleased with how these have turned out, I was dreading my somewhat unsteady hands doing the framing, but overall it's not too bad.

I tried to go for something resembling the careworn pre-preservation look, and whilst the look might not be perfect, I'm happy with that. The red panels received a couple of coats of Tamiya 'Flat Red' (The red was VERY thin, I'll have to try something else in future!)  and the chassis Revell 08 'Matt Black' before the framing was painted with 381 'Brown'. Unfortunately though it was only when it was drying I realised the brown was silk matt, giving a slightly gloss appearance. Rather than repainting all the frames I carried onto the weathering, giving both a wash of 'Tank Grey' to bring out the planking before giving the chassis a light dry-brushing with 77 'Dust Grey' and 83 'Rust'. The pre-painted footboards were then attached and given a similar light dry-brushing along the edges and tops.

The roof was attached to No.5 before both brake and carriage roofs were given a base coat of the matt black, before dry-brushing with both the Dust Grey and 87 'Earth Brown' in a side to side motion to suggest the effects of the Welsh Weather. The masking tape applied to the roofs also helps a lot here!

Before attaching the roof to No.4 though, a slight bodge was needed. As intended, the carriage is designed to have the window panes applied individually into recesses on the back of the moulded part, however I prefer the simplicity of just one long piece of clear plastic. If this is done as is, it does leave a noticeable gap between some of window frames and the window. The solution was simply to cut some lengths of 20x40thou plastic strip to length and glue these on the inside of the window frame. Painted Earth Brown to match the outside framing they blend in very nicely.

No.4's roof was finally attached with a small amount of superglue at the apex of the carriage ends so as not to 'fog' the windows. Finally, the roofs were given a light dry-brushing with Matt Black again to help blend the previous weathering, as well as dry-brushing some of the matt black from the roof down on the carriage ends. Even in preservation there are signs of soot and smut from the locomotives down the ends of the carriage, I can only imagine it must have been more noticeable in days gone by. The buffer heads also received a light coat of Earth Brown to finish them off.

The finished coaches pose for a shot on The Garden Railway with Peter Sam and a Talyllyn style coach from the Bachmann Thomas range, showing off nicely the contrast between weathered and pristine!