Friday, October 02, 2026

What colour is a blue brick?

 

Picturesque

Sometimes, work means I have to do some odd things. A few weeks ago, there was an emergency run to buy pencil crayons. Yes, coloured pencils. 

For the station building project I was working on, I had to colour in some blue engineering bricks. Now, in the past, I'd been told "Prussian Blue" was the colour. I tried it, and it very much wasn't. Far too blue. 

That being the case, the project ground to a halt until I located the correct colour, hence a hurried trip to my local art shop, Picturesque, in Warwick, with some photos of real buildings. 

Chosing crayons

Now, the people running the shop are used to oddballs coming in, and didn't bat an eye at someone testing every flavour of grey in the rack on a bit of card kept from the kit fret. It took a long while for me to work through all the ranges and settle on a selection. The bricks are a lot greyer than you think, but with a hint of blue. Sadly, no one makes a "blue brick" pencil to make things easier for me. 

Grey crayons

In the end, I came away with a few: 

  • Derwent Blue Grey
  • Stabilo CarbOthello
  • Derwent Mid Grey
  • Derwent Steel Blue
  • Derwent Iron Blue
  • Derwent Payne's Grey

Eventually, a mix of three randomly rubbed on the etched bricks did the job, or at least to my eyes. It's all subjective anyway...

 

Thursday, October 01, 2026

Station, nettles and bushes in November's BRM

 

Nettles

Lots of making going on in November's issue of BRM. I start with some etched metal nettles. Very nice, but definitely a foreground plant, as they aren't cheap. That said, when only the best will do, this is a very good option. Very easy to use too. 

Next, a seriously time-consuming model. 

Station

MMR Models GWR station is a stunner - but be prepared to put the time in. Nothing is difficult, but there are a lot of parts, and you really need to be pre-painting most of them too. Is it worth it? In my opinion, yes. There is a terrific sense of satisfaction making a model like this, and if that is part of the calculation you make when deciding how to model railways, then that matters. 

Finally, on BRM TV, I'm making hedges. 


My camera has been out, photographing the OO gauge layout, Bere Banks. 


 British Railway Modelling magazine is available from all good newsagents, or our online store.