New rolling stock in the shed

[tegfan railway]

I have gradually been limbering up to make the first step to a garden railway, at the moment I only have 2 mamods a mamod wagon and log truck and an oval of mamod track. Fairly soon I will be ordering some Peco SM32 track ready to start. I was conscious of the need of some rolling stock for the railway. Rather than buy kits I decided to build my own from scratch. The first 2 in the shed are a 4 wheel coach based on the GVT coaches at Tal y Llyn and also a Tal y Llyn guards van. They are what I would call stand off scale as my railway will be a freelance line not really based on anything in particular but with a flavour of some of the railways we have in Wales.





The coach is only taped to a mamod truck at the moment to get an idea of the proportions. The bodies are birch ply and the chasis when I get round to build them will be made from styrene and acrylic sheet.

[MDLR]

Have you laser cut your own bodies? Very nice!

[tegfan railway]

I am very fortunate having access to a laser cutter, I design my own sailing boats and model aircraft using CAD and the laser so it was a natural progression, makes it so much easier when you want to make a few - much easier than spending hours on the scroll saw. Not sure what paints to use, with my airfix stuff I tend to paint everything matt then spray satin or gloss all over after applying decals etc - what do you guys reckon. I have also read somewhere of people using model tissue on roofs is this for strength on balsa roofs or is it for texture? I will probably be using 0.8 birch ply for mine.

[MDLR]

I am very fortunate having access to a laser cutter, I design my own sailing boats and model aircraft using CAD and the laser so it was a natural progression, makes it so much easier when you want to make a few - much easier than spending hours on the scroll saw. Not sure what paints to use, with my airfix stuff I tend to paint everything matt then spray satin or gloss all over after applying decals etc - what do you guys reckon.

We tend to use car spray paints (gently, so they don't fill up the lasered detail) or "normal" paints varnished over as you suggest.

I have also read somewhere of people using model tissue on roofs is this for strength on balsa roofs or is it for texture? I will probably be using 0.8 birch ply for mine.

That's more for texture than strength.