Paul's workbench

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Returning to the coaches, I spent most of this morning finishing off the full 1st, applied the transfers and final 2 coats of varnish to complete the teak effect. Then reunited the body to the chassis and took the photos. There is still some small details to add but mostly done now.
I dont think I've come up with the definative method for the teak, there are others on the forum who are getting very admirable results from other methods, some of which I might borrow for future coach projects.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Now that the conversion of the 7 coaches is near to being complete, I thought it might be nice to have a loco of similar home made appearance to pull them. So I've dug out this old model of Windsor Lad that I built a number of years ago when in my early 20's. It displays a good example of impatient building and carelessness that goes along with being in a hurry. Originally it was powered by a H1024 motor and although it ran ok, it couldn't pull much more than its own tender. I've already repowered it with a Hornby motor from the new 4-4-0 chassis (purchased as spares from Trains4u for £6), this required making space in the frames and redrilling the screw holes in the bracket but at least I was able to use the existing 40:1 gear set as the Hornby motor has a 1.5mm shaft diameter so same as H1024. The performance is now more than adequate (those cheap motors are unusually strong). Another problem was the lack of front bogie flexibility meaning that the chassis had a minimum turning radius of maybe 4ft, I ended up opening out the wheel arches and removing about 2mm from the frames below the cylinders, also shaved a bit off the front cylinder covers to allow the bogie some room to move. This loco will most likely get a DCC chip so easing things out a bit also helps to avaoid short circuits, especially from the front wheels touching the cylinders on curves. As for the finishing , I have some work to do to fix up the brush painted lining on the splashers and the incorrect boiler lining etc etc etc, the list goes on. Firstly I need to prove the chassis mods have been completely effective, so far it looks promising and with the amount of lead that's in the boiler it should comfortably out grunt a modern Hornby A3.
It's a Comet chassis by the way, and a Liliput /Trix body that I purchased from Dapol for about £2.50 if memory serves, back when you couldn't buy a descent A-anything.
Anyway...Photo's, feel free to laugh, it's ok I'm not taking this too seriously.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've made a small amount of progress with redecorating Windsor Lad, after achieving a fairly descent respray using Pheonix Doncaster green I made a start on the boiler band lining using Modelmaster transfers. All I can say is after two bands of lining I gave up as the frustration was intolerable. After spending a while trawling through Mick B's and Atlantic's threads looking for some pearl of information on how to go about lining evectively I stumbled acrosss some reference to using presfix transfers so I now have some on the way from Mainly Trains. I've also noticed that I think I should have only used a black/white band next to the cab, not white-black-white, oh well, I'll just have to do it again.
Anyway in the mean time I've made a start on some Mailcoach Coronation twin sets, it's been an interesting week, I keep telling my wife that I do these things for fun, pulling my hair out is just a habbit I picked up somewhere...

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Work on the redecoration of Windsor Lad is going forward again. The loco paint job is almost done and it has it's identity back apart from fitting name plates. Presfix transfers seem to be the way to go for the boiler band lining, they were a great deal easier to use than the waterslide type, although still very fiddly. I need to tone down the lining on the right hand side wheels a bit, although the photo makes it look worse than it is. I've decided against changing the lining in front of the cab for fear of ruining a lot of painstaking work, I'll try to tone it down with a spot of weathering. The tender is in the spray booth at the moment, I'm going to have a go at lining it with the bow pen, depending on the results I may or may not post some photos.
If anyone is actually reading this thread, I must say that I've had a difficult time of it to get this result and it still looks pretty average, it's given me a deep appreciation for the work produced by some of the guys on this forum (you know who they are).

Cheers for now
Paul

[Atso]

Paul, you should feel proud getting that level of result from your efforts, I've found that LNER green is a difficult livery to make presentable. All those those black and white lines is horrible to get right, lined black is a much easier option as you only need to line with one colour.

Good luck using the bow pen for the tender, please do post the results up either way! Are you going to line the axle boxes?

[nzpaul]

Thanks Steve, kind of you to say. Lining out the axle boxes??? umm sounds like a challenge, I'll give it a go, if it works out I'll take a picture, if not I'll do some weathering

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've had a chance to get some more work done on Windsor Lad over the weekend, so I bit the bullet and got stuck into the tender lining. I've ended up using two different pens, an old Steadtler one which was best for the heavier black lines and my cheap no name one which, surprisingly, works best on very fine lines. As the photos rather brutally show, I haven't managed a perfect job but it's passable for this time. I've convinced myself at least, that it does look better in person and the camera is just being mean. I did take up the challenge to line out the axle boxes and frames in red and found it less of a challenge than expected, easier than the main lining in fact. I'm hoping that someone will back me up in saying that the bow pen is a very temperamental thing, yesterday when I did this work they both worked perfectly, on other days , for no apparent reason they just wont work at all, it's a bit puzzling. I'm not far of completing this project now so hopefully I can post some photos of the finished product fairly soon.
Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi Again
Sorry to keep dragging this one back to the top. Last post on Windsor Lad, as finished as I can be bothered making it. 1st photo was taken before any weathering was done so its pretty bright. 2nd photo I've put it in company with a Hornby A1 and an original Trix "Flying Scotsman", just for the sake of comparison. I hope I've managed to capture the essence of a working A3, this is my first shot at weathering a green engine so I've kept it pretty subtle. I think it will stand up for itself in the company of my Hornby A1s as long as one doesn't stand too close.
I think I'll get back to some coach building for a while now, I have a Coronation set to get on with.

Cheers
Paul

[teaky]

As you have said in earlier posts, you may have struggled to get this far Paul, but the end result is lovely and your subtle weathering is a nice touch.

I'm looking forward to the Coronation set. (Yet another project I have yet to get around to.) In particular, I am keen to see how you deal with the painting and with obtaining a crisp line between body and window on the one-piece sides. Hope you have enough hair to see you through the project!

[nzpaul]

Thanks Teaky, it's turned out exactly as originally intended, that's to say it looks better in front of my butcher job teak coaches than one of the fancy Hornby A1's, maybe it lends a touch of homogeneity to the train, it all looks like it's made by the same hands I guess.
Anyway, since you've asked...here's how I'm going about painting the Coronation set. I've started by masking off the whole top half of the coach (Norton, Painters Green tape), then undercoat with grey primer from a spray can. The Garter blue I have is Humbrol #221, seems to be passable as the right colour but I don't think it's currently available, I'd probably go with Phoenix if I didn't have this stuff. I've applied the blue with the airbrush, there's no other way really to get a nice finish on long flat surfaces, I did try brushes on part of one but it ended up looking awful.
If you haven't looked already, check out MickB's thread from page 5 onwards, not a Coronation set but a Silver Jubilee set done properly, in fact read the whole thread, there's plenty of good learning to be had.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Part 2:
Painting the panels between the windows is an exercise in masking, the coaches end up looking like a woman having a dodgy facial. I've mixed my own light blue using Humbrol mid blue lightened up with a bit of white added, matched as closely as I could get to the photos of the Golden Age set in Hornby magazine from a few months back. I'm going to use Humbrol #11 for the stainless strip, applied with the bow pen. Photos of how I get on next time, for now this is how they look masked up and in two tone blue.

Cheers
Paul

[teaky]

Thanks for the cross-reference to Mick's thread (one of my favourites). I've refreshed my memory but Mick built some different kits with brass sides that did not have the challenging masking requirements of the one piece mouldings.

Looking at your progress so far it appears that the secret is to take your time and invest in a masking tape company! You seem to be achieving a very good finish with nice crisp lines between the colours.

[Mercator II]

Looking great Paul

Who's tape do you use please? I have a Tourist Stock Brake to do at some point and you recommendation would be appreciated greatly

Many thanks

oOo

Brian

[earlswood nob]

Evenin' all
I'm watching this with great interest as I have a Silver Jubilee set from about 25 years ago. I bought it when it was first released. I dropped out of modelling for many reasons shortly afterwards. However, I kept the set, and when I returned to modelling on retirement five years ago, I realised that I had a rarity.
I have every intention of building it, but am nervous about painting it. You only get one chance, if paint gets on the window panels its the end.

I am interested in how you mask the sides, and what tape you use. Also how you paint the window frames.

Keep posting and I might learn something.

Thanks
Earlswood nob

[nzpaul]

Hi All, thanks for the interest.
The masking tape I've used for this is called Painters Green, made by Norton/Bear, 3m also make an equivalent tape, it's available in most hardware stores here in NZ, I would guess that it's packaged exactly the same for UK and US markets, it should be easy to find. One word of warning, if your having a go at the same kit keep the tape edges sealed, I had to narrow the tape over the windows as off the roll it was too wide, I simply cut it in half and layered it to the correct width leaving the risk of it lifting at the join,if it lifts the result would be a bit of a disaster.
I've started on the window frames using the bow pen and so far so good, although some paint did bleed onto the lower blue panels, not a big problem but it'll require some touch up work after the frames are done, photo's next weekend I hope.
I'm not trying to write a lecture here but, taking care to do things right has been a lesson learned from the disappointment of rushing a job and accepting the shortfalls at the time, only to regret them later, Windsor Lad is a good example of the point I think, I'm happy with it now but it took an awful lot of remedial work to make it that way, so yes, take your time, do it once do it right and all those kind of clichés, worst case scenario, if your not happy, do it again.

Cheers
Paul