Let the decaling begin!

Finally the email letting me know my decals are ready to pick up!

I've been waiting over 12 months for them and now they are in my hands. I can finally finish off some of those projects. Over all about 3 sheets of decals and I am very happy with the outcome. As you will see I like to do things away from the norm hence the custom decals. Now I just need a fine weekend to do some weathering with the airbrush.

These decals will be good for 30 CHS hoppers which I am doing NPJH limestone variants.(Right sheet). The 9 WSC sleeper wagons, 6 GLV louvered vans, a few ballast hoppers and some MLE/TME wagons.(left sheet) 25 BWH wagons will be decaled from the top left sheet and one lonely VTGX tanker. Pretty good value for about $50 bucks, well worth the wait.

A breif overview of the result of another wet weekend. I was able to renumber the 9 WSC wagons, 7 NPJH limestone hoppers and what can be seen here. A very productive weekend thanks to the wet weather.

It may be hard to make out but the R has been hand painted on the original. The number board has even been copied. A little weathering will finish this guy off nicely.

Another picture I found was a wriggly R in red background. Again a duplicate, just need to change to yellow bogies and a little weathering.

This wagon is simply a white R on the van. Again a bogie change and some weathering will complete this one.

Here is a ballast hopper I thought I would try. I think the C on the side needs to be much bigger. Also a bogie change and heavy weathering will make this hopper look great. Can anyone tell me what the letter C is for?

Here is a view of the three NPJH arrows of indicision showing the different stages of weathering in the colour. These will get a dry brushing of white down from the decals to replicate the paint in the decals running.

Finally the L wagon recieves its decals. Thanks for the advice on Rob Regans site. I found heaps of picures. Just need to weather this one now.

This tanker has been waiting about 2 years for it's decals. Now they are on, it would have to be my favourite wagon. I can't resist bright colour. A little weathering and i think it will look fantastic.

Lucky last, this tin plate van. It's a bit old for my liking, but I saw the photo on the NSW rollingstock page and had to copy it.

Upgrading the Trainmaster WSC

Thankfully, it was a wet weekend and some projects were attacked. I thought I would finally try and finish those WSC wagons that have been gathering dust for the past year or so.

This is the process I used to put more weight into the resin sleeper loads.

On the right shows the 3mm guide holes drilled.

Then they are opened out to 13mm, middle photo.

Then lastly weight is added flush (shot) and glued (white glue).

The drill bits used, note the pink lines. These were supposed to be my depth indicators.

I ground the tip off the 13mm bit to enable flat, deep holes for more weight.

Try and be careful with the guide drill or this will be the end result.

This hole was fixed with some sprue that fit perfectly into the hole and glued.

1 out of 100 holes ain't too bad.

The end result, 50 loads weighted and glued. This process has doubled the weight of each individual load.

The end view showing Kadee 5's and AR Kits bogies fitted. These wagons probably never had these bogies but they were spare and better than the originals.

The underside showing the cover strip of styrene on the fish belly hiding the weight underneath. This method didn't give too much extra weight, but everything helps.

The finished product. This wagon negotiated tight curves behind other wagons and performed better than I expected. Tomorrow I get the decals to change the numbers on the other 9.