This is the last one from this year, as we head towards the new year tomorrow, we’re still in the no mans land of old year/new year and perhaps scratching round for something to do, but not a big involved thing.

At the Warners NEC show one of Heljans announcements was the reintroduction of their B tank wagons, and this had me thinking about a set I’d got which I hadn’t done anything with. The model overall is pretty good, it sits a little high, but I can live with that. The thing for me with the weathered set I’d got, was the heavy uniform weathering that we often get with factory finishes. I’d had a look at this previously but not found a solvent that would remove the weathering, and I didn’t want the full repaint route. One of the things I do with my modelling is if I find a product I like I tend to stick with it. This is the case with Revell’s painta clean, a brush cleaning product. Basically it’s Mek and as such needs treating with real caution. Having been at a loss to find a suitable solvent I tried a small area round the tank filler, and found that this worked in removing the weathering paint. I quickly found that if used too much, it will remove the livery lettering that we need to keep on the model. The difference this technique made gave a real transformation in the wagons appearance and worth sharing. Again I must emphasise the hazardous properties of using the solvent. Work in a well ventilated environment, and remember the solvent will actually damage the model so you must treat it with respect!

Realising that this was a useful development I thought that its not a technique that would easily transfer to the step by step process of print media, and have done a video showing how to use this to get a significantly improved weathering effect.

So adopting the picture speaks a thousand words protocol, here’s the video.

As far as other projects go, there are a few in progress, Shelfie 3 is still challenging me in how it should be presented. The operation is really fascinating and engaging for such a simple layout, and I want to do that justice with its presentation, even if that means it becomes a stay at home layout.

In closing again my thanks to you for following the blog and its associated channels. As ever if you have time please follow and read the other blogs and websites linked here, they are always worth reading or viewing. Thank you again and have a great new year.