Weathered by Philden Showcase 21

I've just spent the past three weeks downstairs in the garage weathering a small empire of Australian HO scale models. Many were simply over-purchased ahead of sitting down to write my Model Railway Weathered Wonders book. With the project now finished and the book available in leading hobby stores around the country and online, I simply needed to make time to airbrush them up and move them on.

Ahead of this weekend's first outing for my new layout at the Redlands Model Railway Show in Brisbane, I was tinkering around with what to run, and discovered much to my disappointment that my 46'6" refrigerated containers and my recently purchased NQKY 63' foot container wagons just wouldn't pair together on the container stirrups. I'd also thought that an SCT logistics PBGY van and matching G Class locomotive might work on my short bookshelf layout. Turns out that as awesome as they looked once weathered, the PBGY van was almost as long as my shortened Walthers Cold Storage building. The ex-V/Line G Class loco G513, without the added QR National and SCT traffic, soon left me with buyers remorse...

So in an afternoon of commonsense prevailing, I rounded up anything that just wasn't doing it for me on the layout, and listed them on eBay over the weekend alongside another batch of models that I had just completed weathering. Here's a look at the latest, and possibly last for a while, of Weathered by Philden models that I have for sale...

The waaay too long PBGY van. At 28.5 cm over the couplers, this model is a Trainworld release.

All four 63' foot NQKY's from Auscision Models pack NCW-37 are now weathered and available...

...as is this 46'6" Wilmot Freezehaul refrigerated container...

...and the Breeze Logistics equivalent, both by Auscision Models.

This Pacific National repainted VLCX van was a leftover from my Melbourne layout...

...as were the West Coast Railway VLCX vans, all by Auscision Models.

The subtle rust effects really stand out on these models, as do the mismatched doors.

And of course the sliding doors mean that I have to weather these things inside and out!

Click on the eBay banner above to view the weathered HO scale railway models I currently have for sale. The time for me to weather any further models is quickly coming to a close. So if you've been umming and ahhing for a while, now's your chance. Each model will come with a mini certificate (see below), signed by myself as a way of saying thanks for enabling me to be able to write full-time over the past 18 months.

So my layout changeover is now complete, and any unnecessary items from my personal collection have now all been weathered and listed on eBay. All that remains for me to weather are a few packs each of SDS Models WGX open wagons and FX flour wagons to finally put my 18 month long project behind me. I want to thank each and every person who has purchased a model/models this past year. For your kind words, and even subtle pointers that along the way have culminated in me producing a book to be proud of.

I have a busy month ahead of me with 2 model train shows I am exhibiting at, plus the British Model Railway Association (Australia) Convention I will be speaking at in Brisbane late in September. On top of that there is one final Philden Model Railway book I am about to sit down and start writing ahead of a well earned holiday, (our first since a short getaway last year), that will also culminate in me starting a new job. Oh. and did I mention I am about to become a Poppy for the first time any week now? Life has just become sooo busy!

Until next time...

Each model comes with a certificate signed by yours truly.

For my own record...

Models sold 166/220

Weathered by Philden Showcase 20

This latest batch of Weathered by Philden models is being listed on eBay this evening. Regular readers of my blog get first notice before they go live, as my last batch of GY wagons were all snapped up immediately by the one person. This time I've weathered 2 boxes of Auscision Models NGPF grain hoppers in the modern scheme with ground operated lids and walkways removed. One pack has the white Freight Rail Grain logos while the other has the blue Freightcorp logos.

I've copied the weathering pattern on these wagons from real life examples, with a mixture of painted over graffiti patches in various grey shades. The white dots along the top of the wagons resemble the locations where the roof walk supports have had primer painted around them following the removal of the mesh walkway treads. While the journal boxes were painted either orange or lavender as per some prototype examples I had seen.

You may have remembered that these grain hoppers were originally bought for my inner-Melbourne Philden Street Yard layout late last year, and I did a short YouTube video when they first arrived.

As there's no room for these on my NSW North Coast layout, I now need to move these on to be able to replace them with a set of the NGGF sugar hopper variants as they run through to Grafton on the North Coast line. I'm quite pleased with how the weathering turned out on these. No two look the same, so here are some side-on shots for comparison.

The other side of Freight Rail 36021-P, (shown at top), with the journal boxes painted orange.

Freight Rail 36073-E with the journal boxes painted lavender.

Freightcorp 35955-R with orange journal box covers and a bit of a graffiti squiggle on the side.

Freightcorp 36038-R with lavender journal box covers.

Freightcorp 36080-X with a worn-out logo and lavender journal boxes.

A heavily weathered Freight Rail 35992-W with lavender journal boxes.

Freightcorp 35915-X with an almost worn-off logo and orange journal boxes.

I'm going to try and weather a small batch of models each week as I work around readying my layout for two shows at the end of the month. There are still a few Victorian Railways models waiting for me to grime up and move on after my big layout change back in January, and a couple of more recent additions that I've deemed a bit too long for my bookshelf layout now that I'm getting stuck into some operating sessions and discovering what models suit the layout and what don't, but more on that to follow later.

I've now signed a fair share of these mini certificates for each weathered model that I've sold.

Click on the above banner to view my model railway listings on my eBay store.

For my own record...

Models sold 162/209

Weathered by Philden Showcase 19

After releasing my Model Railway Weathered Wonders book in August, you'd think that I'd be well and truly sick of weathering any more models. However, in not knowing how many different examples I needed to show within the book's pages, I was left with a dozen unopened packs of Auscision and SDS Models once the project wrapped up. I was going to just list them on eBay simply to move them on, but instead thought I'd have one more crack at weathering them up for my readers to find.

As I'm about to culminate my model railway journey by sitting down to write one final book, hanging onto any of them, or anything that won't serve a purpose on my Coast layout for that matter, seems like a bad idea. So instead, I've weathered up the first lot and listed them on my eBay shop along with a swathe of other railway memorabilia that I'm not hanging onto. There will be another 20 to 30 models to follow throughout the coming month, as I see to them inbetween getting the final touches added to Philden Coast before it makes it's first public outing later this month.

Here's a quick showcase of some of my latest handiwork, (post-book), that is available to buy now.

These SDS Models NRWF Walker's Meat Wagons now look a little grubbier than off-white.

These Victorian Railways GY wagons are the Auscision Models version.

They have just that bit more interior floor detail than the SDS Models version, (below).

Which still look great with hand painted rust spots and superphosphate dust inside the wagon.

The VR red was still able to have some effective rust spots bleeding through the paintwork.

These Victorian Railways U vans are also by SDS Models, and once again are a fun model to weather.

The packs consist of the same 4 wheel vans, but with some sporting different doors.

And finally another ubiquitous GY wagon, just to prove that no two models are weathered the same...

...inside or out.

The below banner will take you directly to my model railway listings on eBay to save you scrolling through the more than 1,100 items I currently have listed. I've listed each model individually, as it is a lot more affordable way of adding just one or two to your layout. I have to base my prices on what the retail cost works out to be per model, plus around $40 to cover time, paints, eBay fees and taxes. Some models are obviously different prices to others. Depending on the amount of interest they continue to generate over time, I may continue to weather the odd pack of models here and there, just to keep my skillset at a high level. Next up I have a couple of packs of modern NSW wheat hoppers I have started on.

Click on the abvove banner to view my current model railway offerings

And like Jim Beam says... "none genuine without my signature!"

Until the next time that I get down & dirty...

For my own record...

Models sold 154/198

Weathered by Philden Showcase 18

Here's another update of some models I've recently weathered. This time it's a showcase of intermodal containers. When it comes to buying these containers in packs of two and you only want one for your own fleet... its a case of needing to sell the other. So check the link below if interested.

Yes, the weathering book is coming along nicely. All of the models that I have weathered and featured in these little showcases, have actually been a part of the process of documenting and photographing the different weathering processes that I will outline and explain in my next Philden Model Railway Presents book. Currently I am about half way through writing and laying out the book, with a self-imposed deadline set for the end of July as I'd like to have the next book off with my publisher by August for a September release date.

Writing this book is proving to be the easy part! Behind the scenes, there has been a huge financial outlay for me to buy, weather and sell a good assortment of different rollingstock items to use as a subject of several chapters. Other chapters will relate more directly to my efforts to weather the various building structures on my current layout. Along with the open wagon, goods shed and my CFCLA locos that will feature on the cover of Model Railway Weathered Wonders, this assortment of containers rank amongst my favourites. All of these packets of two containers however do me no good when I only want one of each model. I'm on the home straight to finishing my writing career with this series of books, and my eBay sell-off has been totally necessary to fund this project given that my books have no advertising, paid for comment, sponsorship or other income while I have been writing them. And sheesh! Is the economy at the moment starting to bite or what? So, if you are interested in acquiring one of my weathered models, please check the eBay link below these examples and get one while you can.

These 3 x 20' foot containers are all Auscision Models releases weathered to represent years of use.

While these 3 containers are Walthers models, with the end 2 being refrigerated units.

This 40' foot SCT container is another Auscision Models release, (along with the NQKY wagon).

I finally tracked down some hard-to-find Aurizon containers, again an Auscision Models 40' footer.

A slightly rusted F.C.L. 40' foot Auscision Models container.

A 40' foot TOLL container, again an Auscision Models release.

And these NQKY container wagons are getting a feature here, this time with an Interlink 40' footer.

And finally a well-worn Intermodal Solutions 40' foot container, again by Auscision.

Clicking the above banner will take you to my remaining HO scale models I have for sale, and save you from wading through the other 1100+ listings I have at the moment. Finally it seems I have a very tidy study, thanks to a huge eBay clean-out of my surplus books and railway memorabilia. I doubt I will ever have that many items listed on eBay ever again!

Each certificate is the only way to ensure a model has actually been weathered by myself.

There may be one more weathered showcase to follow, given that I have a few shiny locomotives in need of a coat of realism, and the above NQKY wagons in need of some simulated miles. They're just waiting for me to finish the next two books to afford them the time they deserve. It's been fun weathering such a broad variety of models for this next book. But given my rollingstock roster is 98% finalised for my Philden Coast layout, I'm just about done with the weathering paints for the time being.

Untill next time...

For my own record...

Models sold 134/180

Weathered by Philden Showcase 17

I've had a week's break after finishing my latest book, so I headed downstairs into my airbrushing studio to clear the mind and weather up some more model railway wagons. Here's a look at some of the New South Wales and Victorian fuel tankers I have completed and listed on eBay.

My current layout revamp has seen me round-up anything that doesn't belong on the newly themed layout. But... as I'm about to start writing a book on weathering, I may as well weather the lot and offer them for sale on eBay. These are the last of my fuel tankers, so don't ask me to weather anymore. They are so time consuming to detail to this level that I'm simply over them. They are all SDS models tank cars, the first two are the NSW Tulloch 10,000 gallon type, the rest are the individual boxed Victorian OT/TWF/VTQY/VTQF type. They're lovely models, but all no longer needed now I've ditched my Victorian themed layout for a modern NSW North Coast affair.

Click on the above banner to see all my eBay listings, or this link here to just see my model railway carriages. I still have another 50 freight wagons and containers waiting to be weathered up over the coming month, most of them for my own collection, but any duplicates of the Auscision shipping containers or other models I'm not keeping for myself will go straight on eBay. After the weathering book is complete, I'm done. My layout will have been updated and I probably won't feel like weathering another model for a very long time! So if you were wanting a model that has been weathered by myself, now is your time. Prices had to be based on individual retail plus paints and my time, which works out roughly $40 per wagon. For the amount of airbrush paint I have used this past week, I think that sounds fair.

There's still a few more of these for me to sign once the next batch is completed.

For my own record...

Models sold 115/161