Improving on perfection
OVER 5200 examples of the 24½ ton hopper were built by British Railways between 1955 and 1964. Of these, the recently released Accurascale model represents the most common variation, which totalled 2076 wagons split between part of diagram 1/148 along with 1/154.
At DEMU Showcase this year, I was given the review samples of these superb models to display as part of a wagon demonstration and I mentioned that I would like to have a go at weathering them. Fast forward a month or so and I was asked to do just that. However, there was a slight twist; not only was I to weather the trio but one of them was to be repainted in bauxite/freight brown, a livery yet to be seen in ready to run form.
Taking on the challenge, I went straight to Paul Bartlett’s wagon website () and looked at the entire collection of HUO photos for two reasons; firstly to get a feel for the weathering effects and secondly to find suitable numbers to use on the models. Generally, with the photos only showing one bodyside and sometimes one
