Done and Dusted

The MLV's are all done now, all 10 of them. Thankfully, my old faithful Badger got the job done and the Paasche will now be consigned to the "Do not Open" drawer. So, after some washes of rust and thin sprays of dirt and soot, this is how they turned out.

MLV23269

MLV's 6705, 23260 and 260

The Lot

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out so I'll take the tape of the wheels during the week and then start on the next project. I think I'll finish off the passenger cars I painted and do a bit of track laying as well even though Craig suggested getting started on the LFX. That will definitely be next after the passenger cars as I feel the need for a challenge and Mike's wonderful kit will certainly give me that. Besides, I can practice my lining skills on the BKD, EHO's etc. One thing I'm not clear on was whether the BKD was lined at all so I'm going to make an assumption that they were lined similar to a brake van....unless someone tells me otherwise.

Getting Closer

The new spray booth has worked out well with the 10 MLV's getting a coat of etch grey and then top coats of Floquil Grimy Black. And no dust problems either. The booth made a big difference in keeping the fumes down in the train cave so it's been a success I would say. I tried to use the Paasche airbrush again and it failed entirely this time, no paint flow at all so I used the Badger single action and it worked fine first time. I think it might be time to ditch the Paasche and look at something else as it just doesn't seem to want to work.

So here's the louvre vans as they look today.

Before the decals

After the decals

This week I'll finish them off with some weathering and then it'll be on to the next project. I probably should finish off the N cars, horse boxes, GT, EHO's and BKD that I started painting a while back which will mean getting the decals printed for them and working out how to do the lining.

Then again, I might do something else, maybe lay some track for a change. We'll see what turns out.