Many of us will have the SABLE (Stash Aquired Beyond Life Expectancy) pile. Actually mine is quite manageable, at one time I did have a collection of plastic kits that with brutal realism wasn’t going to get built, and they were sold on. I’m now much more discerning about what I acquire.

Part of the stash is railway kits, in particular Peco Parkside OO models, and over the past week a batch of these has been dug out to get me modelling again. Life and domestic stuff taking priority this past year. The thing with these kits is that they are relatively simple, and to a degree, time absorbing tasks. That engagement is good as it binds you to the project. The PC77 hopper at the header is definitely one that draws you in, and the Toad E PC89 another one too.

The Toads core structure has been built and some modifications made. As this will be an industrial railways internal use brake van I’ve decided on a simpler handrail configuration seen above. Joining the two inner horizontal rail to the inner vertical is always a bit sporty using a soldering iron, it keeps you honest!

As this is going to be a battered example I wanted to try salt crystal weathering on the guard’s landing. This is where there’s been significant foot traffic and wear. So here’s some of Cornwall’s finest flakes being added to the mix. Basically wet the area you want masked and sprinkle the flakes into place. Let them dry and they adhere to the surface providing an irregular mask.

I’m using my usual Halfords white primer for these, a good solid key for the next layers.

The idea is to make a similar match to the Planet Industrials 21t MDO wagons, a limited edition partnership with Accurascale for these models, (more on those later).

Using the trusty Tamiya masking tape the body was masked and undercoated in matt black. This is to give a good key and slight darkening of the orange top coat, as part of the livery is black this naturally becomes part of the finished scheme.

A reasonably close colour match is Halfords Warehouse Orange, and this was sprayed over in several light coats, and left to thoroughly dry.

The Tamiya tapes get really good demarcation between colors so it’s quite a buzz watching them peel away!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyK4-b7I1dc/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Then the crunchy satisfaction of seeing that the salt weathering worked!

This was a really satisfying bit of the task, trying a technique I’d not used before, and finding it works as I hoped it would. Again this acts with considerable impetus to finish the core model, steps, handrails and glasing, then get stuck into the final weathering.

I’m quite happy with the color matching, the Pi MDO wagons tone down nicely too. With the 21t hoppers underway and nearly ready for paint I’ll soon have a useful fleet of private owner industrial wagons. They can operate on Shelfie 2, or does this mean another dive off into another new layout!