Noel

Wow George that's a great line up of your typically superb work. The finish on the plough is fabulous. The master at work. Looking forward to watching and learning from this space. PS: I am lucky enough to own four of the exquisitely weathered MIR orange Cement bubbles built, painted and weathered by you. They inspired me to 'have a go' at modestly weathering my newly arrived IRM wagons.

Is there possibility of a link to that picture? Would love to see it.

Thanks for posting such a superb folio of exhibition layouts.

Scary evolution of bubble weathering - so far! I was terrified I was going to completely ruin them. Stage 1 - Pristine out of the box (I half wanted to keep them this way) Stage 2 - Light dusting of frame dirt and more on chassis to get rid of the black. A little grey power on RHS wagon as an experiment Stage 3 - Mixed up some grey from Vallejo white + a few drops of black Vallejo paints are a total joy to use, they just flow so well through the air spray, mixing is quick and easy and cleaning the air brush afterwards take less time than after using either rail match or Tamiya.

Ok take 3 - added some grey to the top of the tank and a little power on the top surfaces of the chassis frame Kind of trying to make them look like their first year or so in that livery with minimal dirt Note entirely happy but still newish to this weathering malarkey so will probably now do the full rake looking similar to this first pack. Thank you team IRM for truly superb wagons. Video clip in due course.

WMRC open day. Catering for visitors to the WMRC open day. SDMRC show could learn from this. I was astonished the Dublin show lacked catering/cafe facilities for visitors, only for exhibitors behind closed doors. Hospitality is a vital aspect of any exhibition or show, it encourages buyers and visitors to linger longer, spend more, as well as offer a better overall visitor experience. Well done WMRC.

Trying to figure out what next for the IRM bubbles. Personally I visually don't like prototypical the way they looked at end of life when they were filthy, so hoping to just gently dust them all and have a small amount of cement dust on top and the top sides of the chassis. I'm experimenting with one set before tackling the full rake. Think next up needs some grey weathering powder followed by dusting of grey paint on top.

Got two more Murphy Model 141/181s lightly weathered last night. Just enough to get the pristine finish removed and dull the shine off them. In the B&T era they kept the locos fairly clean anyway. I've finally figured out a quicker way of masking off any bits I didn't want paint to go (e.g. windows, wheels, pickups, etc) I just loved the B&T era.

Hi Jason. I know 'Mr Pristine' wants to lightly weather these gorgeous Irish Cement wagons! For my personal taste buds a light weathering should be sufficient as they are very attractive wagons with the blue Irish Cement logo.

Started to very lightly weather some of the new cement bubble wagons this evening. I have to admit to being scared witless I might destroy these fabulous wagons, but have tried to keep the weathering minimal. First some frame dirt on the black chassis and barely a dusting on the bubble just to remove the pristine look, and then some powder. Will look at it again in the morning in natural day light before deciding what if anything to add. Perhaps a little greyer on top. Left two wagons had a light dusting with air spray, the third wagon on right has had a little weathering powder added. Will probably need a little tidying up tomorrow when I can view in day light.

Got itchy this evening and took first steps towards very lightly weathering a pair of baby GMs, four mineral wagons and three cement bubbles. Will try some grey dust on the tops of the bubbles tomorrow after I get some more work done on the GSV.

Had to wait for natural daylight to photograph the black chassis on the cement bubbles. There is so much superb detail hidden by the black I'm going to lightly weather the chassis a slightly brighter colour so the details becomes more visible in relief. The detail is just on another stratosphere http://www.derg.ie/albums/kingsbridge/IMG_3384.jpg

Good news is MM have a fix for the wobbly RPSI Cravens. Chatted with Paddy Murphy yesterday at SDMRC and he has a fix for the RPSI cravens that will be available soon. It's a thin sprung brass shim washer that sits between the bogie and coach floor. Apparently the RPSI Cravens were built with the exact same tooling as recent MM B&T Cravens but in a different factory. No rhyme nor reason for any difference but something about the process in the other factory may account for the tiniest difference in clearances where the bogies snap fit onto the chassis. Alternatively a very thin plastic card shim washer between the bogie and coach bottom will do the same job.

Your welcome. No prob re chat, I could see you guys were rather busy

Or a glass baseboard

IRM Cement Bubble wagons arrived on the layout this evening. They are stunningly sublime. Stephen, Richie, Patrick and Fran take a bow. The detail is up yet another level Looking forward to 'gently' weathering these The detail for model wagons is just beyond belief. Look at the reading on the pressure gauge. And the underside . . . words are insufficient. Well done team IRM - class product. PS: There was no cement inside any of mine

Well done team IRM. Cement Bubble wagons arriving at SDMRC show in Blackrock College.

Good luck today guys. It's a tall order to make the show today but appreciate the effort. Adds a 'suspense' element. I've B141 and B121 fuelled and ready in the pilot siding ready to couple up to the rake of bubbles.

Very nice indeed. Love the added rivets. Looks super.

GWR 0-6-0 Tank and an auto coach is one of my favourite combinations. Iconic GWR heaven.

The foliage is a good clue

GSV 3185 (BSK) continues. First coat of primer to reveal any filling blemishes. Next step is to fill the blemishes, insert the side grills, cut the water feeds at each end, and Keen systems suspended LMS gangways, B5 bogie kits from Replica, Bachmann oval buffers, modify the roof, add under frame fuel tanks, door steps, spray then decals from Studio Scale models, varnish, etc. As this is a Lima donor, the roof is also connected to clear plastic sides for the windows which slide inside the body in one piece, so will cut some of that away, but it will be useful to retain as its an easy snap fit which will allow me to fit out the interior at a later date and perhaps even add some DCC lighting and tail lamps. Flirting with the idea of leaving one of the guards door open, but might leave that for the next GSV which will be 3173 (BCK) which has a totally different door and window layout.

Depot building looks fabulous.

Hi Stevie, In case it is any help, I just successfully sent a PM with a photo. I 'dragged and dropped' the JPG into the message body and it appeared after a few seconds and sent ok. Noel PS: I always resize photos from original size down to about 250k instead of 5mb straight off the camera. This helps when sending electronically using email or forums (i.e. 1024 pixels wide instead of 24mp)

Eoin, those scenes and that loco are simply sublime. Greystones has evolved such a high level of realism that it defies adjectives. I'm dreaming I'm 12 again, and just about to drag a mirror dinghy up onto that beach as the train trundles by, its shrill whistle scaring the sea gulls off the adjacent rocks.