A few weeks back I wrote on a Monday about these MDV’s, and the straightforward simplicity of the kits. Well as per the post above they all went together really easily, and once I’d finished them the force was strong, so I added two Parkside Mineral wagons to the batch too.

These are sometimes referred to as French 16 ton mineral wagons. They were built during the latter part of the Second World War for use in Europe, replacing damaged rolling stock. The also have ‘cupboard’ doors, and were challenging wagons to unload, as unsurprisingly once you’d opened the door…

In the earlier post I mentioned I was thinking of using a new technique (for me) in the painting of the MDV’s. The technique I’ve tried is using solid black as an undercoat, and I’m pleased with the out come.

For expediency I’ve used Halfords matt black and red primers. The entire wagon is painted black making masking the chassis pretty easy. Once done I use the red primer giving the wagons an overall coverage. The red primer isn’t sprayed to get paint into all the angles and panel lines, so it leaves an automatic pre shaded effect. Because the base colour is black you don’t get the tonal variations around panels that sometimes occurs with line pre shading. The final effect then just needed a gloss overcoat for transfers from Railtec and Cambridge Custom Transfers. Once these were added a final waft of a matt laquer and they’re ready for weathering.

So with seven wagons in the final stages of completion I find myself looking at a fast diorama style layout to use them on, despite Shelfie2 sitting there available . Why? Don’t know, but I do know that sort of positive momentum is incredibly valuable, and usually best acted on!