Going Round In Circles

This is one of the most useful items of modelling equipment I ever bought - a compass cutter.

If you’ve never come across one before it’s absolutely brilliant at helping to form the end pieces of carriages.

The roofline of Van 51 has a very shallow radius and on the end with the three windows I will cut off the top piece, with the curve and fix it onto the top of the window pillars to form the end.

I’ve now made the two sides and will soon begin to add panel detail on top.

Not Much To See

The early stages of a model are rarely spectacular.

So it is with the masters for Van 51.

I've cut the base piece for one side to which I will later add the beading detail on top.

This is going to be my third model of this van.

The first shows it in it's almost original condition with a covered entrance vestibule in place of the balcony, and finished in cherry red livery.

The second one is finished in the later engineers livery with the grey at the bottom and the yellow in a band around the windows.

Since then it reverted back to red livery, and now back to its very first livery of green, but this time with a third window in the bottom end.

I hope it'll be an interesting little project.