Earlier this month, I shared that I’d received a Flying Banana – more properly known as a GWR streamlined railcar.
I immediately placed an order for suitable figures to populate its beautiful, and very visible, interior. They arrived a few days ago and I’ve already painted and installed them. (Over the past few years, I’ve also painted more than 1,500 figures for various tabletop skirmish games so I’ve developed a system that works for me and I’m pretty quick at turning them around.)
Dapol, the manufacturer of this model, is to be commended for the lovely interior, the LED lighting (controlled via the DCC decoder), and the ease with which the top comes off so one can add figures. I secured my driver, conductor (a 3D print of me, courtesy my friend Bernard Hellen at Miniprints), and passengers with CA, then – and this is important – I left the body shell off for several hours to ensure all the CA vapours had dissipated so they would not cover the clear plastic window material in white spiderwebs.
Here are some pictures of the interior, with the lights on:
Most of these photos were taken before I’d weathered the model, but as the lead photo shows, I’ve now finished it with a dusting of road dust, roof grime, and engine exhaust – not too much, since this is a passenger train and the public-facing sides would be kept clean, but just enough to convey that it has raced through the elements, at up to 80 mph.
I’m really pleased with how this one turned out. As I noted in my previous post, it’s absolutely inappropriate for Bydemill, but such a hoot to run.
The Model Railway Show 