Coach upgrades

I've been doing a spot of work on some coaches. Firstly, a couple of older models. The Five79 Dundas Tramway coach was built in 2015 for Awngate, while the Dundas kit for a Vale of Rheidol brake van is even older and also saw service on Awngate. However, having adopted a darker shade of green for the Ashover coaches more recently, I thought these would look better in a matching shade rather than the lighter green used on Awngate. 

I removed the roofs, glazing, and vacuum pipes, and some of the seating from the coach came out too, but didn't strip the existing paint. The Tamyia deep green acrylic paint was brush painted, thinned with a little water to flow well and not dry too quickly, and allowing 3 coats for full opacity without obscuring the detail. The frames were painted off-black, and the window frames picked out in pale brown (a fiddley job but worthwhile). The roofs were sprayed with grey primer, the coach roof was given a covering of masking tape first though I didn't bother on the van since the lamp top was well fixed. 

The pair were then weathered in my usual way: a dirty brown wash over the underframes, a track brown airbrushed over the underframes and just onto the lower edges of the body, and an off-black airbrushed over the roofs and ends. These vehicles retain their Microtrains couplings, and can accompany a pair of the Ashover coaches with which they fit well, to form a longer train of mixed but matching vehicles for Hexworthy. 

This pair of Peco Glyn Valley Tramway coaches are much newer, having been acquired ready-to-run in the last year. I expect they will add to the stock suitable for use with smaller locos, such as quarry Hunslets, on Hexworthy. However, like most RTR stock, they look too clean and plasticky, even for a preserved railway. 

End details of steps, handrails, and brake levers were touched in with off-black, as were the underframes and lamp tops to take away their shiny finish. Foot steps were painted weathered brown, and inside, the seats painted green although this is barely visible through the windows. I had some seated figures left over from previous coaches, so both got a scattering of passengers. 

Weathering follows the same process as the other vehicles, the "soot" being even more effective on the white roofs. Not really visible here, but I've added wire droppers to the couplings to allow magnetic uncoupling.