FS Type E Gondola

The nickname of this wagon is very romantic: Gondola. It's the same name of the typical Venice boat used by tourists to visit the Venice and the Canal Grande.

The Gondola (internet)

In railroad stuff it indicates a type of opened wagon. These wagons are used to transport many type of goods: stones, waste, scrap, woods, pipe line, etc.

Many types of gondola are in the railroad world. In Europe, this type of wagon was developed by unified European design. Simple and sturdy it was on duty in all western Europe and then substitute with similar wagons with higher load capacity.

Weathering as usual with acrilyc paints, chalks and pigments.
Some panels are grey to break the color sequence and give an idea of the hard work of these wagons. Some tags to improve the look .

Hope you like 👋

The model out of box

FS Carro Gs

Probably the real workhorse of Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian Railway) and used for many years. Two-axles wagon with a capacity load of  12.000 Kg.

These wagons were produced from '50 years in many thousands and used in Europe by all railway companies.

During the '90 years some these wagons were produced with a special retractable communication corridor to connect the wagons (coded with Hcs-Hcqs).

In Italy they were used for exhibition too painted in orange and green. 

Weathered with acrylic paints, pigments and chalks

Hope you like  👋

Rivets & stripes

The increase in rail traffic led the USA to abandon the old boxcar, with a wooden structure and easily subject to wear, in favor of the metal ones.

Poster of Boxcar Bertha (1972), Martin Scorsese

Sand, salt, rain, frost, snow, rust, heat, sun taggers and writers have made these freight wagons (boxcars) become real icons.

Always present in  American landscapes as well as in some Hollywood movies (Martin Scorsese's 1972, Boxcar Bertha) they are now also famous in weathering technics.

Here are some pictures of a 40' boxcar from the RDG (Reading ?)

I done only atmospheric weathering without tags or graffiti

Hope you like 👋

DR Klappdeckelwagen

I don't know the reason but anytime I look at this car I think at a lobster ! Probably for the hinges of the hatches.

This is an old Piko model purchased at a flea market.

The weathering work gives at the model the exact color tone.

The grey hatch in origin was in classic red brown like the entire model. I decided to paint it with the medium grey to break the overall scheme and meanwhile suggest the maintenance works due to the hard work of this car. 👋

ZOOM IN

DR Offner Güterwagen

I buyed this model many years ago on Ebay and for many years rested in a box till some days ago.
Probably it's a Roco. I don't weathered the internal part. External part weathered as usual : brush, pigment and acrylic colors. 👋

Airfix mon amour

Dapol produces some kits from the olds Airfix moulds. A real cult for aged modeller... like me 😳

Despite the years the kits are well done and with few money you can reach a good result. Here I propose a brake van.

The original box

The other model is a seven plank open wagon "Perfection soap" Crosfield (Dapol 00).

The model, painted and ready,  is very nice but too elegant for me.

This type of wagons were used to charge and transport coal and ores. For this reason they were often damaged with substitution of planks. They were composed by wood planks and riveted. Simple to build and cheap.

Both models are weathered with brush, pigments and acrylic colors.  👋

This blog...

After many years working on military models and figures, I felt the need  to change area. Trains.

In particular way the weathering,  the art of making old what is new.

So, here, you won't find tips on layouts, comparison between locomotive's brands, etc. but only my works on wagons, boxcars, hoppers, tank wagons, tips on weathering etc.

I'm not a blog's expert and the blog is still "work in progress", next time you could find some changes, please be patient. 
You may follow my works on Instagram too.

OK, Welcome. The first post is over.  Stay tuned

👋