Another quick "LGB-project" - Followed by another day out

Time to pick another 'project' from the 'pile' of the used LGB-wagons I bought cheaply last year. This time it will just be a simple and quick project.

Contrary to all the other wagons I bought in this Lot, this was not heavily used or in a scruffy condition. Actually it was literally 'ready to run' as is. The only thing that was bothering me was actually the color. As I wanted a 'military look' to run it in a rake behind both my German Heeresfeldbahn diesel or British WDLR livesteam engine, I wanted a more 'greyish' look than this brown wagon. At the same time I wanted to try to keep as much as possible of it's original lettering and numbering as as it was crisp and nice (on this brown background). So to give it a solid coat of grey paint was out of the question. Instead I decided to try to give it repeatedly 'grey washes' with diluted acrylics finished by a 'black wash'. Now it's no way back... 

Frankly, this method didn't look so good after the first diluted coat. It didn't look too good after 2 second diluted coat of grey either, but I couldn't add a third coat as this would completely cover up the white lettering and numbers I wanted to shine through and keep. I decided to go directly to the blackwash, which I kept heavily diluted. It looked like it managed to make the grey stain less 'spotty':

At this point I also added tar paper made of sports-tape to the brakeman's roof to add some texture to it:

Then it was lightly drybrushed:

This project wasn't going to be so 'quick' as I expected, since the coats of paints were so thin they were flaking all the time when handling the wagon, and I had to keep covering up bare spots. This wagon would need several coats of matt varnish. I think the final result turned out just fine, and I managed what I opted for; making this originally brown wagon into a grey one and keep it's original numbering and lettering at the same time. -Keeping in mind that the grey background gives the white lettering less contrasts though.

I think this wagon is ready for service now...

- which turned out to be far sooner than expected. Just when I've applied the final coat of varnish, Heine suggested that we could spend the weekly model railway club meeting later this afternoon in his garden for a running-session and BBQ. So this wagon actually entered service before the varnish was dry.

Here are some impressions from our improvised club evening in Heine's garden:

This impressive Rätische Bahn Crocodile in 1:22,5 scale is 3D-printed in parts and assembled by one of our members:

The parcel van is also based on a prototype from RhB and 3D-printed and built by the same member:

It looks like my 'quick' LGB-project was approved by Tyra: