TIN HAL PAINTED

Ayjay Models kit progressing well

After a few coats of yellow, blue and grey, this resin EMU kit is taking shape and rewarding all the hours of careful surface preparation. Indeed, I've put quite a bit of work into the livery coats, mixing up the shades slightly to exaggerate some of the shadows in strategic locations (especially around the door frames and gutters). There's also a degree of fading of both the yellow and blue in places, aiming to bring the slab sides to life.

Pictured here, the models are nice and glossy while the transfers are being applied. The inverted triangle, by the way, was cut from a black backing decal designed for applying as a base for a wagon's TOPS panel, simply cut to shape. I couldn't find any suitable stencil route indicators, so have drawn on the '62' freehand with a fine Rotring pen and white ink.

Once the transfers have dried out, I'll be spraying a few coats of satin varnish prior to weathering and final assembly. I doubt that I'll have time, but I'd like to replace the supplied resin underframes with a pair of scratchbuilt units from plastic sheet and strip. The resin parts are anything but straight (with one or two rare exceptions, I hate resin underframes!), although they may still be serviceable.... we shall see!