Explosive Good Times in the Paint Booth

So, there's been some progress at Picton since the last update. The track gauges from Railway Engineering found their way to Picton this week so big thanks to Steve Hatch for resending the order with no fuss. I also got some 3mm cork sheets from Portugal Tiles so things will be moving soon once I work out what to stain the sleepers with. I'm also contemplating what to actually use for sleepers. I happened to measure some Red Head's, long, BBQ matches and they scale out to be exactly 9" wide which is the standard width for sleepers in the 1908 - 1928 period. Dimensions of sleepers were 8' x 9" x 4 1/2" so they're a good match. (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk) Anyway, I'll be asking around what people use and do to lay their track before getting stuck in.
Elscotto popped round to check on progress and pointed out some deficiencies in my baseboard building. Gee, thanks mate ;-) Anyway, I fixed that up last weekend so all is good now and ready to go. It just proves that a second pair of eyes are invaluable with building and modelling as it saves on mistakes and helps you get things right.
The painting has been going well with the refrigerator cars repainted (except for the MRC's...more on that later) and about 30 cars finished. And thanks Craig, for the tip on the Tamiya masking tape, it worked a treat. The last couple of posts have been sans photo's so here's a few to show I'm not making this stuff up.

1896 BCW flanked by 1890 BCW and 1921 CW

BD, K and 3 plank D

BEY and SF

LHG / BHG and 18' LV

HG and Steel S's...not Trainorama

A brace of ICV's

MV, LV, CV and LV

SRC and BRC

Yep, things were going well and I was about to paint the MRC's when there was a loud bang followed by lots of hissing from the escaping air. What had happened was the moisture trap must have had a hairline fracture in it which eventually gave way. This is what it looked like afterwards.

Trap go bang

So I'll be looking out for a new moisture trap this week before the painting can continue. At least Elscotto might get his D wagons finished.