Hi all,
In this blog we will take a look at both wooden and steel vans.
When weathering wooden rolling stock I try to simulate the gray aged timber, rusty bolts, and steel frame work. I find this easy to do on large planks of wood as found on say, a cattle wagon, but the small louvres on NSW vans can be a real challenge! For this I use gray pencils and dry brushing, as pictured below.
The following steel van with the graffiti earned me an equal first place in the On Track models weathering competition. The competition rules were that one of the their louvre van models were to be used.
The On Track team informed me it was a very hard decision and in the end could not pick between my entry, and that of Justin Moy. They therefore awarded both of us equal first place.
The following photo is of a Banana Van as often seen in the late 80's, transporting bananas from the far north coast of NSW to the Sydney markets.
Most louvre vans finished life in a poor and rusty state. The van below has seen better days!
Our last van is a refrigerated van. Ice would be filled in though the hatches on the top. This practice had well and truly stopped in the years that I am modeling (the 80's). However, I have been told some of these vans were still in service as box vans for items such as fruit.
That's all for now. I'll feature locomotives for my next blog. So stay tuned, and thanks for visiting.
Deano
